A Ghost and a Spectre
by ThePilotArchangel
Summary: The Rational part of my brain is screaming that this is all just a dream that I will wake up from. But I know this is not a dream; not when there are others like me in this world. I must find a way to bind us all together, to save this universe and get back home. If I fail, something tells me God wont give me a second chance. Image not owned; Cowritten with IantheMechanic on AO3.
1. Welcome to Mass Effect

**A/N: This chapter has been edited, see below for more details.**

_I watched as Tali entered the Alleyway, slipping away from the crowded market. I made sure my Beowulf had a full mag and the underslung shotgun was not malfunctioning for about the tenth time in a row._

_Something felt off about everything._

_Shepard and the rest of the ground team was still stuck at the Presidium, being held up by dignitaries. Garrus hadn't arrived at Dr. Michel's clinic, and Wrex and Aethyta had been ready to sneak into Fists bar rather than shoot their way in._

_This all felt so wrong._

_I stayed cloaked in the shadows as I saw the Turian and two Salarian assassins enter the alleyway. I could see Tali immediately tense up when she saw the three agents enter her line of sight; "Are you the Shadow Broker?" She asked the Turian._

_I could hear the nervous waver in her voice; and it felt like my heart was breaking at her naivety._

_The Turian didn't answer right away, circling Tali; almost like he was checking her out. He finally stopped in front of her and asked, "Do you have the data?" his voice was grating, it sounded like he gargled glass._

_Tali seemed to find her spine somewhat; and crossed her arms under her breasts indignantly, "I asked you a question, are you the Broker or not? And where is Fist." She demanded._

_"No, but they'll be here soon." The Turian replied, touching the side of Tali's helmet with his talons; which she quickly smacked away._

_"No way, the deal is off." She snapped, and turned around and tried to walk away._

_I grimaced behind my mask and bandanna; _that's a big fucking mistake._ I thought as the Turian growled and grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around._

_"You're not going anywhere." The Turian snarled as he went for his pistol._

_Tali was quicker on the draw, and she drew her shotgun; blasting him point blank in the chest. A hole was ripped right through the Turians chest, killing him instantly. The two Salarians immediately drew their Rifles and two Turians appeared from where Tali had entered the alleyway._

That's my Que_. I thought, smirking._

_I stepped out of the shadows; not even bothering to de-cloak since I knew my gun would cause it to turn off automatically. I shot the first Salarian right in the head, his blood splattering the walls like some contemporary art._

_The second whirled around, trying to see who had flanked behind them._

_I used the shotgun and blew a hole in his chest; at this range his kinetic barriers were essentially useless. The assassin flew backward and slammed into the ground, a cluster of holes in his chest._

_Tali meanwhile had taken cover behind a pile of crates; the Turians were just spraying their Rifles at me and her, lacking their normal discipline. I sprinted and did a baseball slide into cover beside Tali, startling the Quarian._

_She tried to point her shotgun at me; but I stopped her by putting my hand on her barrel, "Easy there, I'm on your side." I exclaimed._

_I could see her mercury eyes were as wide as dinner plates with fear; and it didn't seem to go down at all as she looked at me. The skull mask was very off-putting I will admit; useful when interrogating enemies, a handicap in dealing with allies._

_"I'm Systems Alliance; Fist set you up, I'm here to help." I explained, ducking instinctively as a slug zipped particularly close to my head._

_Tali still seemed terrified, but nodded in understanding; I took out a flashbang and said, "I'll take right, you take the left got it?"_

_"I-okay!" She squeaked._

_I tossed the flashbang, waiting until I heard the loud BANG! before saying "Now!"_

_I popped up, using my laser pointer and red dot site on top of my ACOG to aim as I squeezed the trigger. The .50 caliber round smashed into the Turians visor, shattering it and exploding his brains out of the back of his helmet._

_The kinetic barrier hadn't even slowed it down._

_Tali for her part had been right on target; blasting the other assassin right in the chest, killing him instantly. Even as the Turian fell to the ground, Tali was dropping her shotgun and collapsing to her knees gasping._

_I looked over at her alarmed, thinking she had been wounded; but realized that it was just shock setting in._

_After checking to make sure that there were no other assassins in the area; I knelt down next to Tali and put my hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked softly, already berating myself for asking it; of course she wasn't okay, she had just killed someone._

_But that did seem to steady her as she took a deep breath and looked at me; "Yes… yes I am okay." She seemed to size me up and asked, "Who are you?"_

_I smiled even though she couldn't see it, "Call me Nomad, Alliance Intelligence Special Activities Division. I was sent here to get the data you had on a rogue Spectre."_

* * *

I suppose I should explain myself a bit; I go under the alias of August "Nomad" Lee. I could tell you my real name, but quite frankly I left my old name behind when I made my new one. I was born in in '99, and raised my whole life in Maryland.

My Father was a Mechanical Engineer for the Defense Department. At Least, I'm pretty sure that's what he did; there was a lot of shady stuff happening in those days, but I never paid much attention to it.

9/11 happened, and all I remember is dad leaving for a few weeks to a few months several times a year. He was a happy friendly guy, tall; muscular, and the last time I saw him what little hair he had on his head and his goatee had turned white. Always had a story to tell, always puttering around in his workshop; always dragging me into helping him out. Something that saved me multiple times let me tell you.

My mom had been a physical education teacher before my sister was born; and hated every minute of it. Being a white woman from Pittsburgh, and being sent to a southern Maryland ghetto school was not good for her career to say the least. Almost got stabbed her first week.

It's funny, she doesn't quite reach the old racist grandparent level; but she does touch upon it. I don't blame her for it; she grew up in the seventies, so that's to be expected. The Senior Military Ball, her first question about my date was "Is she black?" I told her yes, and she just shrugged and said, "Okay."

Dad was libertarian for the most part; socially conservative on some issues, but that's to be expected for a devout Catholic.

Mother was more radical in her beliefs, always whining and yelling at the TV when the news was on; shouting that we needed to "Ban the Commies, Ban the Socialists." and all that jazz, but it was more an older person bellyaching than genuine malice.

My sister… well we didn't get along to say the least. We loved each other like any brother and sister, but we couldn't really stand each other. She was like dad in personality; happy, bubbly, chatty, and very artistic. She loved nature, became a botanist if I remember correctly.

I was the exact opposite; cold, morose, quiet, grim, always had an eye for machinery and weapons. My almost constant silence was constantly aggravating to my sister, always pressuring me to talk more. Problem was our interests never aligned; I never cared about what she talked about, and she was the same way.

Hm… I suppose my greatest regret before leaving our world; will always be never reconciling with her.

* * *

The day I came to the world of Mass Effect was a day like any other. I was driving home from my late night Physics class. It had been dry season in Maryland, and only recently started raining that day; the roads had been slippery, the recent rain really screwing with traction.

It didn't help that it was 9PM, I was working off four hours of sleep; having eaten no lunch, hungry as hell, I just wanted to go home. My tan and navy blue Maryland hat fixed tightly on my head, a simple nylon button up work shirt; common with farmers, a pair of khaki wranglers pants, belt with a Maryland belt buckle.

My driving glasses fixed firmly upon my face; and a brown leather jacket for the rain. My mutton chop moustache was slightly prickly, but something I was used to. I looked kind of like captain price from COD: MW, the 2019 reboot.

I never saw the bastard that hit me coming.

Entering a roundabout, I had the right away; and in the rain, pitch black, the guy had no lights on as he slammed into my Chevy Trailblazer at almost 100 miles per hour.

I of course blacked out from the massive G-Load and change in direction I suddenly found myself going. When I woke up, I found myself on Omega.

"Not very descriptive." I hear you guys saying; well screw you, I'm trying not to be clichéd.

I won't tell you about how I discovered where I was; I didn't have to awkwardly ask where I was or anything like that. You could have been piss drunk and known next to nothing about Mass Effect and you would still know where you were.

But I got a rude wakeup call to how dangerous Omega really was. 20 years old; my first kill was a gangster.

* * *

It happened on my second day there; by that point, I had managed to somewhat calm myself down. I no longer had a micro panic attack every time I saw an alien.

I had spent the night in what could be best described as a sewer. I slept maybe three hours at best; but being a college student, I was used too going without sleep. I had no weapons, no money, no shields, no armor; I knew I was fucking screwed if I didn't get a weapon of some sort.

In a way, waking up on Omega was a blessing in disguise; because at least I wouldn't get arrested after C-Sec discovered I didn't exist. Of course, getting stabbed or shot to death wasn't much better. I may have believed in God and the Afterlife, but that didn't mean I wasn't afraid of death.

I was exiting my little hidey hole, mostly because my instincts were screaming at me to keep moving; never stay in one place for long. I was sticking to the alleyways, trying to avoid any attention at all costs; when it happened.

A Turian was thrown into the wall, being beaten by a Batarian; both were pounding away at each other at full force. I immediately ducked behind some garbage, staying hidden; my mind was telling me it wasn't my business. The Batarian dropped his knife while overwhelming the Turian and pinning it against the wall, and then did the act that drove me over the edge; he held the Turian up growling something unintelligible to me, but the Turian understood it perfectly.

Its eyes widened and started thrashing; frantically trying to break free, to no avail. The Batarian for his part started to undo his codpiece.

I had to do something; I refused to just stand by and watch or run away while an innocent woman was raped. At least, I assumed the Turian was female; because the implications of them being a male were unsettling to think of to say the least.

Then I spied the knife on the ground.

As the Turian started to give choked screams; I made up my mind. I sprinted forward and grabbed the knife. Neither noticed as I snuck up behind the Batarian; I waited until I was sure he was distracted, and then plunged the blade into his throat.

I yanked the knife sideways, tearing open his throat; spraying his dark red blood everywhere.

I hopped backward with a curse, carefully avoiding getting blood on my leather jacket and glasses. It took a few seconds, but the reality of what I just did hit me like a freight train. Immediately I felt lightheaded; dropping the knife on the ground, I fell to my knees.

_I will not vomit! I refuse too!_ _Must... Not vomit!_ I repeated that in my head over and over again, until I felt the bile in my throat recede enough that I felt confident that I wouldn't vomit.

I took a breath, and looked over at the Turian I had just rescued. She was picking herself up off the ground, looking at me with something akin to suspicion; she said something, but I couldn't understand her.

I sighed, figuring she would at least have a translator on her; assuming this wasn't pre first contact war. I tapped my ear, and said; "Lost my translator, so I can't understand you."

The Turian blinked, and then sighed; scavenging a gun from the dead Batarian.

She started walking away, and then turned to me; after a second, she waved her arm and jerked her head. _Follow me._

* * *

I followed her to a small store; and upon entering, she shoved a translator into my hands. She gestured to my ears, and I cautiously put the thing in. "Can you understand me now human?" She asked.

"Yeah, now I can;" I replied, I looked over and saw a small stool in the corner of the shop; I walked over and slumped into it, all the energy leaving my body. "What's your name?" I asked.

Her mandibles twitched before replying; "Tavia Varimius, What is yours human?"

I froze involuntarily for a moment. I knew that I could not reveal my real name, especially to an alien like her. Thinking quickly, I said "August Lee, call sign Nomad." I'm not sure what inspired me to give myself a call sign; maybe to throw off people digging around into my past, or just because I wanted to appear like I was an official agent or something.

Whatever the reason, Tavia accepted the answer; tilting her head, "Well Mr. Nomad, what are you doing here on Omega?" She asked.

I pondered my answer carefully, which was pretty hard considering I was flying by the seat of my pants; and I was in minor shock still, even if I had hidden it rather well. "That's classified I'm afraid; but I can tell you a few things. See I'm rather new here and pretty underequipped, I have to get my own materials; my… employers want nothing traceable back to them, so I need to get my own equipment and cash. And a place to stay as well now that I think about it." I grunted and stood up, looking her in the eyes; "Think you can help me out a bit?"

* * *

Tavia had been kind enough to get me properly equipped. She was pretty nice and understanding; a rarity on omega. She was the one that had given me the start I needed in this universe. It helped that she was a retired Turian Cable, so she understood that I couldn't tell her much; in her own words, "I've dealt with enough secret spy shit in my life Mr. Nomad, don't tell me anything that you have to kill me over and we'll be fine."

A bit of gratitude for saving her life probably helped in some matters.

I had no credit chits; my iPhone was gone, left back in my old dimension. My wallet had twenty bucks; worthless in Mass Effect. Same with my Change, I had about twenty dollars' worth of Quarters, Nickels and Dimes. (I get hungry during class, and vending machines were all I could afford; sue me.) And three Maryland Cigars from my stockpile that I had taken with me; At least I thought they were all worthless, boy was I wrong.

Tavia's eyes had practically bugged out of her face. "Nomad… Is that real metal?" She rasped in surprise.

I immediately knew that these were far more valuable than I realized. "Yes Tavia, the big ones are called Quarters; old currency from the old United States of America pre-World War Three. They are 91 percent copper and 8 percent nickel. Medium ones are called Nickels, same era same country; 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. The smallest ones are dimes, same percentages as the Quarters." I informed her, knowing by how she was almost salivating that I had struck figurative gold.

"Nomad… this is worth at least 400,000 credits; almost certainly more. This metal alone is highly valuable as melted down ammunition." She replied. "While neither of these materials are rare per say, it is incredibly difficult to get a hold of without having anyone trace it.

Both of these metals are harvested by either government sponsored companies; or are gathered by "official" criminal organization's that sell it on the black market to boost their credit stockpiles.

I can make ammo blocks out of the nickel, and I can make wiring out of the copper; neither of which is traceable to anyone. If a hitman leaves one of these ammo blocks behind made out of this material, no one would be able to trace where he got it from!" She explained, growing more excited with every sentence.

I kept my face straight, but inwardly I was reeling. I had done the math, one Mass Effect credit was roughly equal to five US dollars in 2018. 400,000 credits would be approximately two million US dollars.

You know that scene in "Futurama" where Fry finds out he has 4.3 billion dollars in the bank? He starts hyperventilating and drooling before passing out; yeah that almost happened to me. Thankfully I clamped down hard on my emotions, and managed to get by with coughing like I'd swallowed my cigar.

"I… not to sound greedy, but you said it's almost certainly worth more; yet you can only give me 400,000? Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with that and I'll take it; but I'm curious to know what the real price is." I managed to choke out in reply.

Tavia's mandibles twitched slightly as she contemplated how best to answer me. It was odd seeing it in person, not through a low resolution game; let me tell you.

"It's probably worth closer to 500,000; but I do need to make a profit, and in honesty I don't have that much to spare. Besides, like I said; it's not the metal that's valuable, it's the fact that its untraceable." She replied.

I nodded in understanding; TV shows like "Pawn Stars" fresh in my mind. "Tell you what, you have a bit of everything right? Well, how much would a pistol like this be worth?" I asked, taking out a picture.

To say she was surprised by my choice was an understatement.

"I've never seen a pistol of this design before; but I can easily fabricate the materials for it." She tapped her carapace. "Hm… consider this to be on the house; but if you want anything else, it will have to come out of what I plan to pay you." She informed me.

"More than fair I think." I replied with a grin, finally allowing myself to show some emotion.

* * *

After a bit of talk, we decided to fit me with some armor while she fabricated my gun. It took longer than you would think, because unlike old human armor; Mass Effect armor had to be fitted to your particular body shape.

I never thought of that to be honest.

Then there was the problem of aesthetics; I'll be honest, I always thought the armor from Mass Effect looked stupid. I always had an eye for armor that, at the very least, looked like it was feasible back in the 2000's; The Spartan armor from Halo, the HEV suit from Half Life along with the PCV armor from the same game being my favorites.

It took a long time and several arguments over functionality; but what I settled on was more than satisfactory to me.

The chest armor was a lot like a 21st century plate carrier in actuality, but it had was more… sleek in its looks. I also had shoulder armor pieces as well, and lower and upper leg armor fitted to me.

The helmet was unfortunately like the starting games helmet; but with a little help, I modified it so that it had no visor. Instead, I chose what looked like a 21st century gas mask. Tavia had explained that bit for me thankfully.

Apparently it had been a prototype mask for N7's and other human special forces, the gold-titanium alloy was incredibly durable and light; but it had been deemed too costly for mass deployment and thrown into the scrap heap.

When Tavia had told me that, I originally thought it would take half the money she planned to pay me with; but she told me that she had been trying to get rid of the thing. Only humans, and Quarians technically, could use it; but humans rarely came to Omega. No one else would buy it because it was "creepy."

"So what can it do?" I asked, looking at the mask with renewed interest.

Tavia tilted her head, "Its vacuum rated when combined with your helmet and the under suit I've fitted you for; its lenses have a specialized HUD software that can do a multitude of things, monitor your life signs for one. It can toggle between regular vision, night vision, thermal vision; and of course it gives you immunity to gases employed by human police and military personnel. It can also adjust its lenses and act as binoculars if need be, or in your case act as a replacement for those ridiculously fragile things you call glasses. That mask alone is worth 5,000 credits." She said.

"I'll take it." I said immediately.

* * *

When all was said and done, I had a skin tight vacuum rated suit that could be worn underneath normal clothing which I immediately put on, the armor rig looked like a 21st century plate carrier; shoulder and leg armor looking very similar.

Then came the most important piece; the long coat.

I admit, I'm a sucker for trench coats and long coats; so when I saw the rain cloak, made of grey military grade nylon, I knew I had to have it.

All the fitting and choosing took about five hours; but most of it was me and Tavia talking about different things. I admit, making small talk to an alien was strange; but I managed it. When all was said and done, I stepped out of the changing room; I looked almost exactly like Cole D. Walker from Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The only real difference was my mask, which looked like the M45 gas mask; but rather than being made of rubber it was made of metal, and the lenses had a green tint to them.

The only other difference was the vacuum suit, which covered every inch of skin.

I reluctantly parted ways with my old clothing with the exception of my Maryland hat, my glasses, and my leather jacket. My glasses was for pragmatism sake; and my hat and jacket for sentimental reasons. My jacket had been a gift from my dad when I was young; I didn't fit in it, but he had gotten it with the knowledge that I would grow into it.

The hat had been a gift from my mother shortly before I started collage, to help me "Remember where I came from" In her own words.

I stepped out of the room, and looked at Tavia, who flexed her mandibles; "How do I look?"

"Intimidating is one word I would choose." She replied, "I admit, you didn't look like much when you first came in here a few days ago. Now you look like a real warrior; your taste in aesthetics is a little odd, but I don't think anyone will be laughing at you for your looks."

I nodded, accepting her praise, damned faint as it was.

"How's the gun coming along?" I asked, examining the knife I had bought and attached to my chest rig.

"Should be ready," She replied, looking at the fabricator. Sure enough, as soon as the words left her mouth the buzzer rang; signaling that it was done. She stepped up and withdrew the pistol from the fabricator, almost reverently.

I grinned behind my new mask as I looked at it.

"A .50 Caliber Action Express Revolver; six shots, crosshair holographic sight." I said, taking it from her grip as she offered it to me. It looked like Kellogg's pistol from Fallout 4, just with a sight attached to the top, and a laser sight and mini-flashlight attached to the bottom.

I had chosen .50 Caliber Ammo because it would be the only type of ammo that had the stopping power I would need. Tavia had tested the ammo before; it could punch right through a Krogans head plate and kill them in one shot, but you did have to very precise in where you aimed. If it missed, all it would do was hurt them and piss them off something terrible.

And then I would become a blood stain with a fancy gun.

Naturally the recoil would be a bitch to handle, but she had installed a modification that reduced it to something more manageable. From what I could see, she had added a sort of recoil compensator that took the expended gasses and fed it out of vents in the barrel; without reducing the effectiveness of course.

I'm still not entirely sure how it works without fucking up the bullets spin and trajectory, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Of course, all it did was make the recoil more manageable; it didn't all of a sudden make it into a .22 caliber pistol with next to no recoil whatsoever.

Even now, if I use it too much my arm starts cramping like a bastard.

I had purchased 300 rounds of ammo in speed loaders as well, much to her surprise. Where I planned on going, I would need it. When everything was said and done, I had spent about 75,000 credits on all my new equipment and weapon.

I strode out of Tavias gun store feeling like I could take on the world.

Of course, reality was oh so kind enough to slap me in the face.

* * *

**A/N: A few edits to the chapter to make the story flow better and close up some plot holes. I also retconned Nomads pistol into a normal 6 shot revolver, with only slightly better recoil than normal; Meaning the thing kicks like a shotgun, rather than like a horse.**

**I also corrected the reasoning behind Nomad receiving so much money for his pocket change; it's not the metal itself, so much as the fact that it's untraceable. You drop that ammo block and run a test on it, you'll find the metal will be dated as being first melted down over 100 years ago from earth. **

**That is definitely worth the credits I think; also, probably a bit of gratitude on Tavia's part.**


	2. One in a Trillion Encounter

**A/N: Also edited to help flow better; see more below.**

Along with Tavia, I had also made friend in a Hanar by the name of Puritan. After I had set everything up with Tavia, she pointed me to him.

In exchange for 10,000 credits he set up an untraceable account only he and I could access; where I promptly deposited most of my money. Then he set me up with an untraceable account for the net; I could access anything I wanted not protected, and no would know I did it.

He thankfully had set me up an Omnitool with military grade software and encryption.

Anything I had on there would be safe; and even if someone did hack it, Puritan assured me I would instantly know what happened, and it would trace who did the hacking. I frequently visited his store, mostly to deliver equipment Tavia had sold to him since she had agreed to take me on as a hired hand for the time being; but i also came just to make idle chit chat. It was rather interesting listening to the latest stock prices and black market sales, if you could believe it.

One day, we were in his store talking about the latest military grade encryption software. I felt that what he had given was more than adequate for my purposes; it wasn't like i was going to be hacking into giant ships or anything like that. It was all well and good, until three Batarians walked into Puritans store.

I immediately tensed up; Batarians were hated both in universe and out. And my experience of killing that gangster that tried raping and killing Tavia was still fresh in my mind. I didn't sleep a wink that night afterwards, despite the fact that Tavia's spare bedroom was pretty cozy all things considered. I hadn't had to kill anyone else since then, but that would soon change.

The Batarians were the North Korea of the Mass Effect universe; the individual person might be a good man or woman, but the hegemony as a whole was a very bad egg. Ever since I had come here I had done so much research; granted a few days wasn't a lot time, but when your suffering from PTSD and can't sleep, what can you do?

Heh, if I had studied Calculus as much as I did my new homes news and history; I would have passed with an +A.

In the past year, 2180 for those not keeping track; close to 20 human colonies had been raided by the hegemony, three of those raids successful; So to say I was wary of these three guys was an understatement at the very least. "Hello Puritan… it's that time of the week." The leader sneered, not even giving me a second glance as I slipped behind a shelf.

"(With resignation) and so it is; (With slight annoyance) how much is it this time?" Puritan asked.

As they hashed out how much Puritan had to pay, I just watched. In most SI stories, the character would either be pants wetting scared; or gun them all down like a badass. I did neither. I just watched and let what happened, happen. I was wary of them, not scared of them; but they weren't here for me.

Beyond giving me a few warning glares, they didn't seem to even acknowledge my existence; which was just fine with me. _Yes please ignore me; I'm not a target for you fucking barbarians. _I thought to myself, glad that my mask kept my emotions hidden. I may have kept rigid control over them, but even I had my limits.

As for killing them, I wasn't used to my revolver in real combat yet; I had run an impromptu crash course Tavia had set up in exchange for 100 credits. By the time I met Puritan, I had been in this universe for about a week. I had spent 5 hours in the simulation every day, and most of it was me failing horribly. Only recently had I started improving; and by that I mean instead of dying horribly, I was only grievously wounded after I had "killed" a few simulated gangsters.

Plus, killing these guys would only bring more trouble on Puritan than on me. They would make his life hell; they didn't know me, but they did know him.

Eventually, they got their money and left the store; but not before one of them spit in my general direction. I sidestepped it, and watched them leave; _Fucking animals,_ I thought to myself. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I looked over at Puritan; who had lowered himself a bit, looking like a gorilla that had been chastised.

"(With Much Regret) Sorry you had to witness that Mr. Nomad." Puritan said.

"Don't be, stuff like this is all too common. It's a shame I can't kill them, but that would just bring trouble down on both of us." I replied.

Then I heard a woman scream; and against my better judgement I drew my revolver and dashed outside. I heard Puritan following me, but I paid it no mind. In the side alley beside Puritans establishment, was a Turian and a female Quarian; and behind the Quarian was…

_Holy shit!_ I thought as my eyes bugged out behind my mask. It was a Quarian toddler, no more than two or three years old inside a hamster ball. It was my first time seeing a Quarian unmasked; and I will say, they look very human. Grey skin, glowing eyes the color of silver, and midnight Black hair was the only discernible difference I could see. Dark purple hair as well now that I thought about it.

On the ground was a Human, some giant guy with brown hair; there was a hole in his face, and his brains splattered the ground. I gulped slightly at the sight of blood and brains on the ground, but I pushed the sick feeling in my gut down. I pointed my revolver at the Turian; my blood boiling.

He had removed his codpiece, and the Quarian woman's suit was torn; revealing her… ahem, assets.

I kept my eyes averted, but it was hard; never an easy task to not look at a naked woman, especially for a virgin like me. I had both hands on my revolver, making sure not to do that bullshit "cupping" technique most movies use. Trigger hand kept loose, supporting hand overlaid on top of it kept tight.

I had to act fast, I knew the longer this woman was in her compromised suit; the worse it would get. "Puritan, where's a good doctor?" I asked.

"(With much worry) two blocks down, a Dr. Mowok Zizz can help. What do you intend?" He asked. I didn't reply with words; I always was more of a man of action, I will admit.

Instead of saying anything, I took a breath; and squeezed the trigger. _BANG!_

* * *

I had fired many guns in my life, but this thing kicked like a mule. I nearly bashed my head from the recoil, but my aim was true. The Turian rapists head exploded like a watermelon. I stared as he fell to the ground dead, brains splattered against the wall.

At 20 and a half years old, I had killed a fellow sentient being; my second kill actually.

All that shit where people think that playing a video game can prepare you for the real world is bullshit. I knew that, but it's a whole different ball game to actually kill someone in person. Already I could feel the bile rise in my throat, but I shoved it down.

This woman needed help, and so did the kid.

"Puritan take the kid; I'll take the woman." I ordered, shutting down my emotions to keep myself sane; and as much as it scared me, the sight of the dead Turian and the knowledge that I was responsible for it didn't bother me nearly as much as the Batarian.

"(With deadly Seriousness) Understood." He replied, walking over and picking up the Quarian toddler. She had not a care in the world, giggling at the giant green arms that may as well have looked like giant trees from her perspective as Puritan picked up her hamster ball.

Puritan took the lead and holy hell could he move fast.

I had been getting in pretty good shape; constantly running Tavia's obstacle course, finally used to my armors weight. And I had been in pretty good physical condition before since I had been in ROTC in all four years of high school. I still kept to the same regimen I had when I was in that class; 20 pushups and 40 sit-ups in the morning, followed by 30 jumping jacks.

I thought I was in pretty good shape; but now I found myself panting as I ran, probably because of the Sick Quarian in my arms. I never was a good runner, I'll admit; probably because of my short height. The mile run was the only thing I never managed to pass during our quarterly physical fitness tests; and it was biting me in the ass now.

* * *

Within minutes we reached the door to the clinic Puritan had mentioned; the Hanar banged the door furiously with the arm not occupied with holding the kid. "(With Panicked Anger) Doctor! Open the door right now!" He shouted angrily.

In seconds, the door flew open; revealing a Salarian in bright white armor holding a pistol.

I tensed, but there was nothing I could do but wait and see what he did; my mind was still mostly on autopilot, and seeing a gun made me mark him as an enemy. Fortunately, he lowered the gun on seeing the Quarian. He rushed over and took her from me, yammering as he did so "Not good, severe suit breach! Likely contaminated! Need clean room now! You two wait in the Check in!" He exclaimed, taking off inside the building.

After a second of standing there, I shook myself out of my thoughts; moving to go inside the clinic. Puritan held out an arm, stopping me for a moment. I tilted my head as Puritan looked at me, "(With sadness) it is unlikely she will survive; you must know that." He said; walking inside with the Quarian girl in his left arm.

I nodded even though he wouldn't see it; the gravity of what had just transpired finally began to sink in. The urge to vomit was becoming overwhelming, but I again stamped it down. I refused to do something as undignified as vomit in a doctor's office. I had weathered killing someone before, I could do it again.

I spied a collapsible chair stuffed in a corner; and promptly sat down with a huff.

I pulled out my revolver, and opened the cylinder; I took the spent shell casing out, throwing it away. Then I took a round from the military fanny pack on my side; my hands shook as I struggled to fit the round in the chamber. I fit the round in, and closed the chamber; making sure to holster it.

My hands were shaking like crazy now, and I realized that shock was catching up with me; I could barely fit the bullet inside the chamber much to my frustration, and I started quietly swearing under my breath as I tried to get my hands to stop shaking.

It must have been more obvious than I thought; despite my best efforts to hide it, because Puritan came up to me and handed me the Quarian toddler. "(With resignation) you must look after this child Mr. Nomad. For it is likely we will not find any Quarians able to do the same." He said.

Looking back on it, I know what he was doing; he was taking my mind of the fact that I had just killed a man, but at the time I was a little nonplussed that he was so callously ignoring that I had just committed murder. Plus, I didn't really register what he said; of course other Quarians could take care of the kid, and the mother could pull through despite her high exposure to the open air.

I was about to chew him out for it, when Dr. Zizz came in.

He took the hamster ball from my hands, and examined the toddler inside; "Only two and a half to three standard Rannochian years old. Slightly underweight. No infections. Mother likely will not survive the night. Please come with me." He said.

I stood, narrowing my eyes; "Why?" I demanded.

"Mother wanted to meet you. Wanted to talk with savior." He explained, walking with the toddler. I followed him into the clean room he had set up; and I stopped, a little caught off guard. I remember now that Salarians are not sexually attracted to others; so with that in mind, it should not have been surprising that he hadn't even bothered to cover up the patient and give them some modesty.

Her bio suit had been completely removed, and had a bunch of tubes in her; rashes were breaking out all over her body, from her arms and legs to her… privates. Snot was pouring out of her nose like a waterfall, and she was hacking and wheezing like a chain smoker.

I tried to be respectful, but it was hard not to stare. I was seeing what most humans in universe; and next none but the game designers out of universe had ever seen before.

A suit less Quarian.

She looked human mostly, just with three toes and three fingers; glowing eyes, grey skin and black lines throughout her skin belying cybernetics. In contrast to her daughter, she had white hair; which did catch me off guard.

Dr. Zizz handed the woman her daughter, and left the room; but not before whispering to me, "She knows she will die soon. Please keep it brief." He ordered before walking out. I watched him go before turning and walked up to the woman; taking a collapsible chair and setting it up beside her. I sat down, grunting as my muscles twinged slightly from my constant exercise.

My arm was already throbbing from shooting my revolver, but I ignored it.

Keeping my eyes averted from the Quarians body, I looked her in the face; she was rather pretty, so it wasn't hard. Still… I felt like I was looking at an Islamic woman without her hijab; or a nun without her outfit, it felt wrong somehow. "What's your name?" I asked.

She took her eyes off her daughter, who had fallen asleep in her bubble. The Quarian looked at me before rasping, "Cira'Shodal vas…" she coughed "Tasi…" Ah… that explained why she was here on Omega. She was an exiled Quarian.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything quicker." I said sadly.

She rapidly shook her head, "There was nothing you could do… that other human you saw… he was the one… that tore my suit…" Cira coughed again, while I felt my blood begin to boil slightly. I had hoped that my people would rise above the shit that kept us on earth. But that was just me being naïve again.

Cira looked back at her daughter, tears trailing down her face; mixing with the mucus and saliva. "I only have two regrets… that I am leaving my daughter alone in this world;" She coughed again, a distinct wheeze mixed with it, "and that I did not prepare… a final warning…" She trailed off, perhaps thinking she had said too much.

Ordinarily I would dismissed it as ramblings or delusion even; But her wording caught my attention. "What did you say?" I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper.

I saw a hint of panic cross through her mercury like eyes; "It's nothing…" She whispered back, breaking into another coughing fit.

I looked behind me to make sure no one was listening; then took off my mask. My pale skin, and mutton chop moustache exposed for her to see; she could see my expression, one of deadly seriousness. "Who is the illusive man?" I asked, I don't know why I asked that particular question; but it just came to me.

A look of recognition passed across her face; "Jack Harper" She replied.

A good guess, but I had to make sure; "What did bioware produce?"

She gave a relived smile, "The Mass Effect Series."

I gave a short laugh of relief and despair; So I wasn't alone after all, if only for a short moment. I knew I didn't have long, so I began rapid firing my questions. "Are there others like us?"

"I don't know, but if we are here; there have to be others."

"Your daughter?"

"I was pregnant before I came here; woke up as a Quarian in a Citadel Hospital."

"How long?"

"A few months into my pregnancy, so about three years."

We looked at each other for a long moment; "I'm sorry I couldn't save you." I repeated.

"It's okay; I will go on to either the nothingness after death, or heaven, or the walled garden, or whatever afterlife exists…" Her coughs started growing weaker, and her breaths more shallow. "Just promise me; promise me to look after June… find others like us. Stop the reapers." She rasped, her breath growing weak; with the last of her strength, she shoved June into my arms.

"I will, I promise." I said, looking her in her eyes; not even noticing as a tear dripped down my eye, something that shocks me even to this day. I hadn't cried since my grandmother died when I was 10.

She gave a content smile, and then closed her eyes and died. I bowed my head, saying a quick prayer for her soul; then put my mask back on and strode out of the room, keeping a tight grip on June. The kid slept away in her bubble, unaware the tragedy that had befallen her.

I stepped out of the clean room; our whole conversation had only taken minutes, yet it felt like I had been there for hours. Puritan and Dr. Zizz were talking, likely about costs and how the Quarian ended up in her situation. They both stopped talking and turned to me as I entered the room, June in my arms.

"Puritan…" I started.

The Hanar tilted his head as he looked at me; "(With Great Curiosity and Traces of Sympathy) what do you need Mr. Nomad?"

"How do I set up a private access server?"

* * *

**A/N: More minor changes to make the story flow better, and trying to seal up more plot holes and editing mistakes. I haven't been changing much, but if you look and say "I don't see a problem." That means I did my job.**


	3. We are Ghosts

_Are the Reapers real?_

_Is subject "Savior" Paragon or Renegade?_

_Who is "Archangel?"_

_Who is the Illusive Man?_

_What did Bioware create in 2007?_

These five questions stared at me, imprinted in my memory. It had been a Month since Cira had died; and most of that time was spent acting as a hired helper for Tavia, all the rest was being a dad to June.

The first week after her mother's death, June had cried every night before going to bed. I tried my best to comfort her, but I didn't really know what to do; you aren't programmed with the knowledge of how to be a good parent, contrary to popular belief.

_Why God?_ Was the question I asked every day, why did he think I would make a good father? When I had told the doctor of Cira's final request; he had rattled off a bunch of information to me about proper care of a Quarian and all that fun stuff.

If there was one thing collage had prepared me for, it was finding ways of retaining information despite not really listening. In this case, I had simply set my Omnitool to record; and just stood there only half listening as he prattled on about a whole lot of crap.

I had been living in a rather cheap place after spending two rather sleepless nights in a sewer pipe system. Once Tavia had set me up with my mini fortune; I rented out a place very close to her shop. It was rather Spartan; a bathroom, a bedroom, a mini office, a half kitchen and half living room.

"I'm sorry to see you go…" Tavia had said, before giving me a sly look; "And no, I'm not giving you a parting kiss like your Human romance movies seem to always give."

I had simply flipped her the bird, and left with the promise to continue being her helper.

With Dr. Zizz's help, I had set up a clean room in the mini office room. Something the games never really showed was that the clean rooms were actually way safer than one would be led to believe. The only reason Cira hadn't died instantly when I took my mask off was because the filtration device was killing all the germs and foreign substances the second they left my body.

The same thing could be done with June.

Under the Doc's strict observance and guide; she slowly began to acclimate to me, something all Quarians could do given enough time. But it was slow going, over the past month she had gotten at least three or four allergic reactions to me; all of which terrified me to the bone.

It's funny, at first I had only really looked after her because I felt I owed it to Cira; after only a month, she was my daughter, appearances be damned. Heh, guess under my stone exterior I was a big softy.

I looked over at June, who was out of her bubble and sleeping on her bed in the clean room. I gave a light smile and had to resist the urge to kiss her head and tuck her in. she was slowly becoming acclimated to direct contact to me; I could hold her hand, touch her face and all that, but the Doc told me it was still about a month until she would acclimate to something like saliva.

Reluctantly, I took my attention away from her; and back to my omnitool, which glowed a dark green.

It had taken awhile to set up; but it was worth it. Puritan had made it so that the survey would be sent all over the Extranet under the guise of an ad. Then, when the person opened it; their omnitool would take a picture of their face, for two reasons.

One, so that I would know who was what species; and two, so that someone who failed the test couldn't attempt it again.

Each question had a specific answer, although I was flexible with the wording; and with the exception of the first and second question, you had three attempts to do it; you failed, it locked you out permanently. That being said, if you got to number three and failed; it would still inform me of who you were. If you made it that far, it was actually pretty likely you were still like me; but you would have to be evaluated personally, I was taking no chances of the Illusive Man or the Shadow Broker tracking me down.

Up until I met Cira, I had been under the belief that I was on my own; that all I could do was tag along with the Normandy crew, and quietly nudge Shepherd up the Paragon route.

But after meeting her? I refused to believe we were the only two, there had to be others out there in the galaxy. There were billions upon billions of people, the statistical chances of there just being two of us "dimensional hoppers" was next to nil.

But if I'm honest, this was just me flinging a light into the darkness; a desperate call for help if you will.

I had let it stew for a month before I came back to it; deciding to solidify my place here on Omega, while ducking low and staying the hell out of Aria's eyes. I stared at the button for a long time, before I took a breath and hit the key to open the test results.

Over 18 million people had attempted it. 50% had failed on the first question, an additional 42% dropped out on the second question; and 7.9998% flunked out on the third question. The remaining .0001% or approximately 1,800 people all passed with a 100% with no attempts failed.

That was… not a lot of people in the grand scheme of things; but in terms of a clandestine unit it was perfect.

I wasn't a soldier; not even a killer, or at least I used to be. But Omega was a harsh mistress, and I weathered the storm rather well all things considered. The Turian rapist I had killed left me a sleepless, vomiting mess for at least two nights in a row. The latest kill under my belt, a Batarian mugger that had tried to hold up Tavia's store barely registered a hint of sickness from me.

I never liked it, and I didn't feel good about it; but I had more or less gotten used to it.

I needed these people; but not all at once, I could create an inner circle of sorts and work up from there. I did a location check, and couldn't help but curse lightly that almost half had similar encryptions and anti-tracing software like me.

They would have to be tracked down later it seemed.

I did a search to see how many were on Omega; and was shocked at how little there were.

Seven… Seven possible dimensional travelers like me out of the millions here on the station.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Even if they had been deposited on Omega like me, they would have gotten the hell out of dodge the first chance they had and never looked back. That made me either really smart, or really dumb for sticking it out here. I would like to think I was smart, since I seemed to be the only one to have thought of putting feelers out like I had.

I immediately began scrolling through the seven potential candidates for my inner circle. Five were Humans, one was Quarian, and one was Asari. I had put in a request that once they finished the quiz, they put in information about how they came to this world; what they did, their experience and the like.

The first one was a fellow under the alias of John "Colt" Weaver; a United States Marine a few weeks out of basic, been under fire a few times, and then got killed in a mortar attack. He had been here for close to a year, and been something of a vigilante for a while.

Next was Ayashe "Archer" Kingfisher, Native Cherokee United States Army; woke up on the Citadel, made her way to Omega and was currently working as a security guard.

Zofia "Mira" Snarska, Polish; She had been studying to be a doctor before getting stuck here. She was working out of a clinic as an assistant doctor.

Voronov "Philip" Filippovich, Russian; been a small time gangster before waking up on a colony by the name of Nova Prospekt. He was currently working as a mercenary.

Karl Shultz, German; the oldest out of everyone, a veteran German Police man; and had been considered for the GSG-9 before finding himself on the Citadel. Made his way to Omega for unknown reasons, as he refused to give his reasons for being there.

The Asari was under the alias of Niri Heliix; as a human, she had been a theoretical physicist and researcher. That could come in handy, if we were to seriously counter the reaper threat.

Then there was Laaf'Teenar vas Tasi, call sign "Arc"; a former Frenchman that had been in the French Army, now employed as a combat engineer for a private security firm.

Each of these people could be valuable to me, and to the galaxy. On our own, we were weak; easy to prey on. But together, we could be a force to be reckoned with. My mind made up, I sent each of them a message; I would meet all of them separately on a different day of the week so as to not draw suspicion, then we would meet together as a group.

"Papa? I can't sleep…"

I sighed lightly; being a parent was great and all, but some things just flat out sucked. I will be forever indebted to my parents for putting up with me.

* * *

_Knock Knock Knock._

I looked at the door, quickly putting my mask on and flipping my hood up; while drawing my revolver. I stood to the side of the door and keyed the mic; "What's the pass phrase?" I asked.

There was a pause, then a males voice replied with; _"I am a Ghost, I don't exist, I don't show up on a map. I don't show loyalty to any species. The Reapers will fear me, for you cannot kill what does not exist."_

"Colt?" I asked, just to confirm it; Squeezing the grip of my revolver. The thing back in my timeline had enough stopping power and muzzle velocity to punch through a quarter inch of solid steel and still have enough force behind it to go through a person and kill them.

One Krogan had thought it a good idea to try and rob Tavia's store, and I shot him in the head. Killed him instantly, and sprayed his brains all over the wall.

"Yeah it's me; You Nomad?" He replied.

"Yup, c'mon in." I told him, I stayed behind the door as he entered; keeping my eyes on him. His military bearing and his armor confirmed that it was indeed Colt. His armor was more in line with the 21st century, but his covered his whole body; whereas mine just covered the legs, crotch, chest, back, and upper arms.

I shut the door behind him and he walked over to my couch; promptly sitting down and propping his feet up. "Ahhh… nice place you got here; Nice gig by the way, look like a proper wolf. What does that make me? A Ghost?" He asked jokingly, putting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes.

_Sigh… this is gonna suck; isn't it?_

* * *

In hindsight, I should have seen it coming; all of us had been gamers, so of course they would immediately see the connection between my outfit and Ghost Recon, to say nothing of the pass phrase.

All of them had a witty quip upon seeing my outfit.

I kind of had it coming; yes I looked intimidating as hell, and yes, in this universe it looked badass. But back in my universe, I would have looked kind of ridiculous; the past month on Omega had whipped me into shape, but I was still pretty short. I had been short back in 2019, only 5'7.5" so imagine how short I was compared to the average 6 feet for most humans.

Nevertheless, all of them checked out; Colt was a bit of a joker, always had some witty or sarcastic remark at the ready for every comment or question I posed to him. But he was a good marine, and a nice guy; was even kind enough to take it upon himself to start teaching me some hand to hand combat.

Got my ass kicked, but it's the thought that counts.

Archer was terrifying to say the least; did not hesitate in trying to put me in my place. Thanks to Colts tips and lessons, I managed to subdue her and gain a bit of respect in the process. Course, June was very upset; thinking that Archer had tried to kill me.

That wasn't fun trying to calm her down; but Archer helped with that, by the end of it, June was happily demanding that Archer "train" her. She wasn't bad on the eyes either. (Gah!)

Mira was polite and respectful; serious and dedicated. She had been trying to find others like us before I showed up, but she didn't have the money to get hired help like I did with Puritan. She was a tad bit suspicious of me, but that was to be expected.

In all honesty I think she suspected June too; but I couldn't be sure.

Philip was boisterous, and quite a big guy; He said the pass phrase, and then barged in with two bottles of vodka, happily singing a Russian folk tune. Bastard dared me to a drinking contest, which I politely turned down; since I hated alcohol with a passion.

Called me a pussy until he woke June up; he had the grace to at least look embarrassed.

Dr. Heliix was in her maiden stage still; woke up like that, and had been here for only a year. She had tried finding other dimensional travelers, but cut herself off when she started drawing too much attention to herself. I knew it was unrealistic, but I asked if she had made any progress to working around the Mass Relays.

To say she chewed me out for my naive way of thinking is an understatement.

Shultz was like a big brother almost; in his mid-thirties he had way more experience than all the rest of the "Travelers" on the station combined. He had been here the longest, almost three years now; and had several contacts to my surprise. He had met about three others, all on the citadel; he had the beginnings of his own intelligence network, something I planned to use to good effect.

At least June liked him the most; she kept begging for more visits from "Uncle Shultz!" I just hoped I wasn't inviting a Lavrentiy Beria into my inner circle.

Arc was a little bit arrogant, but he was tolerable nonetheless; he reminded me of Major Winchester from M*A*S*H almost. He had the skill and professionalism to back up that arrogance. He still had that French accent of his, which sounded… off coming from a Quarian.

After he left, I told June that she should never be like him; she told me that "he's a big jerk." Smart kid…

* * *

I shuffled through the files I had started creating; the meeting had gone far better than I had hoped. We were all dedicated to one goal, the defeat of the Reapers. The only problem was that we differed on how best to accomplish that goal. We had three factions form already in the inner circle.

There was my faction, which was the least offensive to the group and the strategy we had settled on after much debate; a policy of limited intervention, working from the shadows to nudge Shepard along the Paragon path; and preferably have zero percent casualties amongst the Normandy crew.

Schultz and Arc preferred a policy of direct intervention; but they were pacified with the knowledge that we would intervene in the events that mattered.

Heliix and Mira were more problematic; the wanted a policy of no intervention unless it appeared events went off the rails, support the status quo if you will. I couldn't fault them for following that line of thinking; after all the events in the games ended with the Reapers defeat.

Problem was that millions died, even in the best case scenario. After a lot of discussion, we went with my plan of limited intervention.

We were Ghosts, and we did not exist. As much as the others poked fun at me for the Ghost Recon Reference, they accepted the name; an organization needed a name, and as far as I could tell the Ghost Recon series didn't exist in this universe. Plus, we needed a way to make sure that other "travelers" as we started calling them, knew that we were the real deal; not some fake trap to lure them into the open.

The others voted and made me the leader of the Ghosts, much to my surprise; I guess they chose me since I was the one that organized the whole thing.

I made Dr. Heliix the head of research; I told her that her first priority was to find alternatives to the Mass Relays, and whatever she needed she would get. It took a lot of convincing, but I had to impress on her the importance of finding a work around; if we didn't find it, then we were dead.

Archer, Colt, and Philip would work with me; we would be the ground team, a problem popped up somewhere in the galaxy, we would deal with it. Our job was to deal with issues quietly, but slowly leak out info about ourselves.

Exist as rumors and hearsay. When the events of the games finally came true, we would be Shepherd silent guardian angels.

I made Shultz my intelligence head; he would start gathering up fellow "Travelers" and bringing them into the fold, build up a network of field agents for those not combat inclined. Those that were combat inclined would form more Ghost Recon fire teams.

Mira and Arc I put in charge of gathering materials and scavenging ships. Ghosts could not use public transportation, we would draw unwanted attention from both the law and from other unsavory characters. The good news on that front, was that Arc had a lead on a Pre-war Alliance Dreadnaught-Carrier hybrid.

He showed us the schematics, and we unanimously agreed that it needed to be found; and once it was found, we would name it the "Spirit of Fire." Before you say anything, we chose that name because it looked exactly like it; only it had the white and grey Alliance coloration.

She was old, but she would serve our purpose.

She could hold up to 60 fighters and bombers, service three frigates; and could deploy tanks, APC's, and whole platoons on a planet within minutes. And her main gun packed a punch, just as powerful as the destiny ascension. And its armor was twice as thick, and built with a unique honeycomb design meant to maximize its strength.

If you're hearing this and wondering why the Alliance would dump such a badass ship; the answer is simple. One, the Treaty of Farixen; and two, it gulped down eezo like an alcoholic in a beer hall.

But that was where Heliix came in, once we found the Spirit of Fire and got her up again; the Doc planned to replace the engine with a Fusion Reactor, like what was found on the "Pillar of Autumn."

I had expressed doubts that it would work, and she laid it out. In our universe yes, it wouldn't have worked; but here? Mixed with eezo, it would work; all too well. It would produce ten times the energy, and it would drastically reduce the amount of eezo consumed by at least 40%.

Arc also mentioned that he planned to replace the spinal cannon with a MAC gun; again, laced with eezo, but it would still use way less than a "conventional" weapon from this universe. Plus, rather than shooting a slug, we would be shooting a solid round instead. A Reaper killer if you will.

Of course this would take years, preferably before the events of the first game started. But we had to assume that the ship wouldn't even be found.

* * *

"Stop fidgeting, you're throwing off my measurements." Tavia snapped, struggling to use the measuring tape with her claw like talons. Normally she used the sensor pad, but the thing was malfunctioning; requiring the armorer to use older methods.

Already in a bad mood due to lake of sleep; this was just the cherry on top for the poor Turian woman. It was very amusing to watch, I will admit. It was even funnier watching Archer struggle to stand still. You would think her being in the Army before coming here would have taught her discipline, but evidently it had just made her more aggressive.

"Oh I'm sorry Mrs. Windup toy, let me stand completely still for hours on end. All for some stupid ass armor that Mighty Whitey over there wants us to wear." Archer growled in reply.

"You think this is easy? I have to fucking take into account these weird sacks of muscle and fat on your chest." Tavia grumbled. "You hate me doing it, why don't you have Mr. dramatic over there take them."

I wordlessly slipped my hands into the inner gloves of Junes hamster ball, and covered her ears; knowing that the argument was going to turn vulgar very quickly.

I gave a deep sigh; the Native American woman, or half I should say since her mother was white even if she didn't look it, was very confrontational to say the least. The only person I had seen her soften up around was June, who just sat there in her ball innocently.

"Dadda? What's a windup toy?" June asked, looking at me with her glowing mercury eyes.

I gave her a sideways smile; my mask and helmet on a shelf next to me. "It's an old toy from human history, it had a mechanical system built into it; and it was charged with a spring. You wound the spring, and it would march around in a perfect circle." I explained, using exaggerated gestures to emphasize my point to her.

The girl tilted her head, her grey skin and purple hair I had long since grown used too. "Sounds boring." She declared.

I laughed, and stuck my hand into one of the gloves installed on the thing; ruffling her hair. It was already starting to reach her chin, meaning it would have to be cut soon.

"It's why it's used as an insult kid." Archer snarked, her brown hair done up in twin braids with feathers put into them; she was being fitted for armor, and I had insisted that at the very least, me, her, Colt, and Phil had to have a matching set.

Colt had been onboard from the get-go; "I always liked the wolves more anyway." was his line.

Phil had been ambivalent about it, but conceded that the four of us needed to look the part of badass, mysterious, clandestine operators; and he admitted to me, in a kind of backhanded compliment, that my armor looked kind of cool. "Out of that armor, you kind of look like a wimp; if it weren't for those mutton chops I would have assumed you were still a teenager. When you're in it, you look like you will slit my throat."

Archer had taken a lot of convincing, but she went with it; only after June had begged her because, "Daddy is gonna be super hero, he need team!" A little embarrassing, but it worked I guess so I can't complain. She was a sucker for the kid.

Colt and Phil were both fitted now; Phil looked like me pretty much, but he had chosen an urban camo color scheme for his armor and under suit. Colt had chosen his old Marine sand camo for his armor and under suit. Both of them had the dark grey rain cloak though, which made me very happy.

Colt used a Banshee assault rifle for his main weapon, with an increased accuracy for a mod.

Phil for his part had taken a Sokolov shotgun (big fuckin surprise the Russian takes a Russian weapon) with a reduced recoil mod for it.

I had taken the M-92 mantis; I had always intended to go to sniper school if I had enlisted, and I spent hours honing my accuracy. I was the air rifle team captain in high school; won state championships for that matter. But I would always use my pistol for close quarters; the thing killed everything in its path.

Archer for her part had taken the M-12 Locust, preferring to hit her enemies unseen and up close for her part. As for her armor? Well she agreed to the rain cloak, since it had a ballistic weave that would stop weaker projectiles; and it did a great job at breaking up our profiles. Other than that, she looked like Nøkk from Rainbow Six Siege.

The four of us would be the strike team that accompanied Shepard; the "Public Face" of the Ghosts if you will.

"Hey, Nomad; we got a little job you might be interested in." Colt said as he walked in, catching my attention. Archer tried to turn to look, but Tavia grabbed her chin and held her in place "Stop moving you spastic monkey!" she snapped.

Colt gave them a sideways look before giving me a shit eating grin; "We gonna see a cat fight sometime today boss?" he asked.

_Clang!_ "ow!"

He rubbed the back of his head while I set my helmet back down. "Thanks Nomad; would have done it myself but I'm a little tied up." Archer grumped.

I ignored her and asked; "What's up Colt?"

His smile grew bigger, and he pulled up his omnitool; "Schultz got a stray transmission you may be interested in hearing. There was Batarian slaver ship on approach to Omega; but it was forced to stop because of a malfunction in its coolant system. It's just one jump away, and the alliance is trying to get a rescue team." He explained.

"I'm sensing a 'but' here Colt." I said, already figuring where this was going.

"Yup, by the time the closest rescue ship is slated to arrive; they'll be here on Omega." He said.

I nodded, taking in the info; "So what? We can just sit here and wait for 'em to park here on Omega, and we hit them when their pants are down." Archer said, sounding excited at the prospect of killing a bunch of Batarians.

"Wrong;" I replied. "Because the minute they dock, the Hegemony will be on that ship in seconds; plus, we'll have Aria to contend with since she will very likely end up 'browsing the wares' the Slavers bring in."

"And then it will be all our necks in the noose." Tavia grumbled as she walked off with Archer's measurements, catching me by surprise that she knew the human term. I didn't regret making her a member of the Ghosts, same with Puritan. Of course, they got the "official" reason we were here.

The Ghosts were a clandestine Special Forces unit that did not exist; we took the best that humanity had to offer, and put them in places all over the galaxy. We were expected to fund and outfit ourselves; everything from bullets to bandages to ships. Our job was to clean up the ugly in the galaxy; with the goal of eventually destroying cartels and gangs in the Terminus systems. Once she heard that; Tavia was on board. Puritan we just gave him the promise of a lot of money, which he happily accepted.

"How are we gonna get close to the slave ship before it blows us out of the sky." Colt asked incredulously.

I had to think about that for a moment; then I asked, "Has Arc and Mira gotten back to us on the ships they've found in the week since the last meeting." I asked; it had been three weeks since the first meeting, most of it spent getting Me, Colt, Archer, and Phil familiar with each other in combat.

Phil, the Doc, and Mira had gone hunting for suitable ships for our purposes; while Shultz had gone to work tracking down other "Travelers" and induct them into the Ghosts.

Colt blinked, then scrolled through the list; He grinned widely, "Yeah, they found a discarded Salarian stealth corvette. I like you're thinking boss."

I smiled as well and leaned back into my chair; tomorrow the Galaxy would get its first rumors of the Ghosts. And they would not be liking them if all went well.

"Hey Tavia, are you up for a little babysitting for a few days?"

* * *

**A/N: Two things.**

**One; is that stories on this site only really take off once you exceed 10,000 words; which is why I've been updating a lot and making big chapters.**

**Two; is that I'm disappointed with Ghost Recon Breakpoints story. They had so much potential with it; Lt. Col. Nomad and a platoon of Ghosts being the survivors of Lt. Col. Walker's betrayal; and you could have blended the Wildlands formula, and made it into a sort of Mass Effect 3/strategy game hybrid. **

**The Ghosts and their allies clashing with the Wolves and their supporters for control of the archipelago; diverse storyline, have you pick a side in the conflict; so much potential and they wasted it. Instead they went with the classic "Soldier grows disillusioned and tries to start a global revolution" kind of story. Granted, they could have made it work; but they didn't. **

**I'm sad now.**

**A/N (Post Edit): Didn't change much beyond errors and a few continuity mistakes. Hope you guys are like this story.**


	4. Call me Nomad

"But I don't want you to go!" June wailed, trying her best to keep a hold of my leg through her bubble. With the exception of Archer, who was watching the whole ordeal go down, and Tavia who was busy trying to pry my daughter of my leg; everyone else had already boarded the salvaged STG stealth Corvette and were waiting on me and Archer to board.

"C'mon June, don't be like this! I got some chocolate paste for you back at the shop." Tavia begged as she tried to pull June off of me.

"I don't want to go either honey, but I'll only be gone for the day; I'll be back before bedtime." I said, trying to placate her.

I was feeling really sucky right about now; being an idiot as usual, I hadn't considered the implications of running a clandestine Special Forces unit would have on my life. Namely, how much time June and I would potentially spend apart. It felt like someone was ripping my heart apart; listening to her cry, and I swore that it was the worst sound I ever heard. But I steeled my heart, I had to; those slaves were depending on me.

I knelt down and held her face with the internal gloves; "Don't cry June, please. I won't be gone long; besides, you want to have fun with auntie Tavia?" I asked.

June sniffed, and said "I want to play with you dadda."

Tavia put her hands on her hips; "and what the hell am I kid? Chopped Varren?" She joked, trying to lighten the mood. But June was not swayed, and kept a tight grip on my leg; sniffling as more tears ran down her face.

I guess Archer decided that enough was enough, and finally walked over and knelt next to June as well; "Hey kiddo, look at me." She said, prompting June to turn her tearful gaze over to her. "I will make sure your dad gets back before your bedtime; or I'll kick his butt, that sound good kiddo? And we'll bring you lots of presents when we get back okay?"

June considered that, then gave a reluctant nod; "Pinky promise?" She asked.

Archer laughed, putting her hand into the glove; "I swear kiddo."

I grinned, and gave June a quick hug once she let go of my leg; who reluctantly rolled her ball over to Tavia. Tavia gave me a nasty look before leaving for her store; as much as she liked June, I knew she wasn't happy with the prospect of me leaving her behind. Archer and I watched them go; before putting her headgear back on, Archer gave me a look, and I think she could tell how conflicted I was about leaving June.

"Hey." She said, surprising me with how soft her voice sounded.

I looked at her, and she gave me a quick hug to my surprise; "She'll be fine, she'll get over it; I'll make sure you make it back to her." She whispered.

Then she broke off the hug, and I wasn't sure since I couldn't see past her net; but I think she looked a little embarrassed. She went inside, and I watched her go before shaking myself out of my stupor; slipping on my helmet, sealing it with a loud hiss.

I tried not to think about it too much as I walked up the ramp.

* * *

"How are we doing on approach Arc?" I asked the human turned Quarian as his hands flew across the keys.

"About thirty minutes away now, still haven't detected us." He looked at me, "Get ready to board; the minute we attach they'll know somethings up."

"Copy that." I replied, striding out of the bridge; giving a quick nod to Dr. Heliix, who sat at navigation. I walked to the boarding ramp, specifically built for boarding enemy ships. I had to hand it to the STG, they didn't go half assed when it came to covert ops.

I grabbed an Assault rifle, reluctantly setting my sniper rifle in the weapons rack; this would be close quarters, and my revolver was too slow firing for this kind of boarding action. I would only use it against an entrenched or heavily armored opponent. Archer, Phil, and Colt still had their respective weapons. Mira, and Shultz had also grabbed assault rifles as well; and had been fitted with similar armor to the rest of us. Shultz was dressed like me, just with basic black; While Mira had taken Archers appearance.

We had a special patch made with the Ghost Recon Symbol on it; both to identify ourselves, and to give any potential "Travelers" a way to recognize us.

I checked the heat sink and the ammo block; and made sure my armor was in place and my helmet, mask, and suit was properly sealed. I wouldn't put it past the Batarians to vent the ship out of spite. I smirked behind my mask as I spied the skull like patch on everyone's shoulders, the words "Ghost Recon" embroidered on it. Either we would be seen as a mercenary group, or we would be seen as Alliance.

Both worked for our purposes.

I had brought Schultz and Mira with me because the six of us would need to work fast to take out the crew. Just the four of us could do it, but I wasn't confident with our individual skill being capable of working at the speed this boarding action needed.

"What's the call Boss?" Colt asked.

I pulled the ammo block, making sure it was whole; before slamming it back into the ammo slot. "Blitz tactics; move fast and hit hard. Avoid hand to hand if necessary, and try to leave the commander alive." I replied.

"_30 seconds!"_ Arc said over the intercom.

"Alright, remember the plan; stay in pairs, no one goes alone. Got it?"

"Got it!" They chorused.

"Good… Let's give 'em hell! OORAH!" I roared as the hatched opened.

* * *

Me and Archer sprinted to the right, Shultz and Mira took the left; while Colt and Philip took the center. I ran fast, cloak flapping as I moved; a Batarian stepped out of a hatch, yawning as he did so. I pumped a burst into him, and he flopped dead onto the deck.

We kept moving down the hall, quickly checking any room we passed by to make sure they were empty; we couldn't take chances of having a squad of Batarians sneaking up on us while we were freeing the slaves.

Two more Batarians stepped out of what looked like a mess hall, unarmored and talking quietly about something that was probably important to them. I blasted the left one in the head while Archer fired a burst into the rights neck.

Both fell to the deck with a loud thud; alerting the Batarians in the room they had just left.

We piled into the mess hall the Batarians had just left; three were seated around a table eating while a fourth was holding a tray of food. They were just standing up from their chairs while the one standing dropped his tray; their eyes bulging out of their heads. They didn't even have guns on them. Archer and I were methodical, one burst to the head followed by a burst in the chest.

All four slumped to the floor, blood pouring out of their bodies.

"This way Archer!" I called, sprinting through the open hatch; heading towards the bridge of the ship. The entrance to the CIC was opening, an officer stepping out with a pistol. "What's all the noise? You better not be discharging-"

His head made a wet slapping noise as my rounds entered his brain.

Me and Archer charged inside even as the officer fell dead, eight Batarian crewmen scrambling to get their weapons or trying to run away; having seen their officer get killed. They had no chance; we had trained together for weeks, running through hundreds of different scenarios and environments in Tavia's sim-room. In two months I had gone from a scared college student with minimal experience handling firearms, to a ruthless (somewhat) Black Operator; capable of keeping up with a some of the finest the US military had to offer.

Of course, the others made sure I could keep up with them; they weren't dragging my ass over the finish line, I'll tell you that much.

I shot one in the head, and then double tapped a second; Archer had killed another two by the time three of them had entered cover. The fourth survivor ran, and he had the distinguishing markings of the Batarian Commander we were looking for.

"Eyes on the commander; he's fleeing the CIC to the slave pens! Take him alive!" I called into the radio as one crewman fired a burst at me. I'm… not proud to admit it, but I may have panicked slightly; and sprayed randomly at the guy.

He ducked behind cover as Archer ran up and blasted her SMG on full auto right in his face.

I ducked behind a terminal, waiting for my heat sinks to cool; cursing that the ability to swap them out hadn't been invented yet. "Archer! Catch the Commander; I'll deal with these two!" I ordered.

"Acknowledged!" she replied, sprinting out of cover towards the open hatch.

I sprayed my assault rifle at where the two Batarians had taken cover, keeping them cowed as Archer ran through the hatch; then I slung it over my shoulder and vaulted the terminal, drawing my revolver. One popped his head up, and I fired.

_BANG!_

His head exploded like a watermelon, the kinetic force hurtling his body backwards from where he had been crouched. I had somewhat gotten used to it; but the recoil kicked like a bitch, and it still hurt like hell if I fired it too many times.

As clichéd as it sounded, the killing didn't bother me as much as it used too; it got easier as may like to say.

I sprinted towards where the Batarian had been, vaulting over his cover as the second Batarian leveled his gun at me. We both fired our respective guns. My shields failed as his gun fired on full auto; then my plate caught a few more of the sand grains. None broke through, but looking back on it; that little stunt I pulled right there nearly got me killed.

His chest now had a thumb sized hole in it; and the crewman slumped backward, while I braced myself against the terminal he had hidden behind, my adrenaline rush fading slightly.

Hindsight is 20-20 they always say; I should have waited for him to poke his head out of cover, and just shot him right then and moved on. But I had been impatient to get a move on, and I had unnecessarily exposed myself to him; had my shields been weaker and if my armor had been a little bit thinner, he would have at the very least seriously wounded me.

Probably killed me.

That slammed me full in the face, _He almost killed me_ I thought somewhat aghast. But I forced myself to push it down. We still had an objective to complete, and targets to apprehend.

"All teams, CIC and mess hall clear; status." I called, panting slightly.

"Colt here, all hostiles eliminated in the engine room."

"Shultz here, Bridge cleared."

"Archer here, enemy commander has fled into the slave pen; at least ten Batarians inside with him. Need backup."

I cursed as I thumbed the mic; "Nomad copies, everyone rally up on Archer." I ordered, already running to her FOF tag nearby.

I reached her position in seconds, spying a closed hatch. "He sealed this?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Ok, we don't have time to hack it; we're breaching this sucker." I said as the other four guys rushed up. "Stack up, hurry before they entrench themselves and start taking hostages." I ordered. We quickly stacked up, Shultz, Archer, and myself on the left; Colt, Philip, and Mira on the right. "Ready?" I asked, upon receiving confirmation I shouted "Three! Two! One! Breach!"

_BOOM!_

The specially shaped plastic explosive charge tore through the thin metal door leading to the slave pens; blasting the doors out of their frames and sending them flying into the room. One Batarian had been standing in the open, and was cut down by the doors.

The others charged in while I hung back, revolver in hand; searching for the commander.

The others were fast, and precise; in seconds they cut down the Batarian defenders, the few that tried to fight back only managed to fire off a few rounds nowhere close to anything before they were cut down. Then I spotted the commander. I sprinted from the destroyed hatchway, and cut to the right; since most everyone was to the left.

I sped by the giant metal cages that held the slaves; Humans, Asari, Salarians, Turians, Krogan, and even a few Quarians, a Hanar, and an Elcor. I didn't dwell on it as I ran past; but many of the slaves watched me pass with something akin to fear and awe. The Batarian commander was covered by two of his remaining crew; both were looking the wrong direction as they took potshots at my team; who were still mowing through the Batarian slavers, although they had slowed considerably to avoid hitting the slaves.

I shot the first in the head, and then my arm wavered unintentionally as I fired at the second.

I cursed at he screamed at his knee being blown off; but I couldn't dwell on it. The commander turned as I hit him like a freight train. For all my short height, in the months since I came to this universe I more than compensated for it with speed and mass. I football tackled the guy and we both went crashing into the ground.

The Commander snarled, fear and fury on his face and in his eyes as he punched me in the head.

I snapped my head back, stars dancing across my vision. _Ouch!_ I flinched, but I immediately grabbed a device that everyone had been equipped with before the start of the mission. 50,000 volts of electricity coursed through the Batarian Commander's body; and he screamed in pain as his muscles locked up.

I made sure I didn't touch him, and I let up after a few seconds; I didn't want him dying from heart failure after all. I quickly pistol whipped him right in the temple to make sure he was stunned enough that he wouldn't be a threat to me.

His head snapped to the side, and he grunted; struggling to stay conscious.

I quickly used a pair of zip tie handcuffs, keeping his arms behind his back; and locked them as tight as I could without cutting off blood flow to his hands. I didn't want him to lose his hands by accident after all.

_WHAP!_

I went sailing into the wall, stars dancing across my vision; my vision blurring as I stumbled and fell when I tried to stand. To my shock, it was the Batarian that I had accidently kneecapped; he was holding a metal pipe, and was struggling to keep himself standing. Despite that, he looked somewhat confident as he looked at my prone form.

That confidence visibly dropped as I staggered up to my feet, holding my head; but the fucker was determined, I had to give him that.

I looked down, and saw my pistol had landed between us; and looked up to see he had noticed the same thing. We looked at each other, then down at my revolver; and moved at the exact some time.

I'm sure you've noticed what he didn't by now; but I still had my assault rifle.

I drew and deployed it and held my finger down on the trigger; not even bothering to aim it as I fired. His shields flickered and died; and I shredded his head, turning it into pieces of flesh and brain. I let go of the trigger as he fell, and looked past him to make sure I hadn't hit anyone by accident.

I lucked out; the slave pens had shields over them.

The cynical part of my mind told me, _Of course they would be shielded, slaves are no good dead. _But I was mostly glad I didn't just make an irreversible fuck up. I did a sweep of the room, and I was satisfied to see the last Batarian drop to the ground dead. The rest of the team swept the room, dead checking anyone not headshot, while I collapsed my Assault rifle. I picked up my revolver, and checked on the Commander.

He was cursing and raving, bleeding from a cut on his head; and still somewhat stiff from being tazered, but he was mostly fine otherwise.

Archer walked over, and the two of us each grabbed an arm and dragged him over to the wall; propping him up. "Kingslayer lead to Actual; all E-KIA, Batarian Commander has been captured. Opening the slave pens now, prepare to dust off." I said into the radio.

I didn't wait for Arc's response as I walked over to the cages; looking at the slaves inside.

I pulled up my omnitool and sent the hacking program into the lock; giving a small smile as I unlocked it. The slaves however didn't move from where they stood or cowered in the cage; many looked at me with fear. One older looking Asari, likely in her Matron stage just from her looks, stepped in front of the group; her biotics flaring weakly, another Asari, this one a child, cowered behind her legs.

She wasn't in any shape to fight me, it was clear that the flare of biotics was just for show.

I turned, and jerked my head; Archer got the hint, and grabbed a rifle from the pile of corpses. She strode up, her head net and cloak making her look kind of like a swamp monster; she wordlessly tossed the gun to the Asari, who nearly dropped it in surprise.

"Official Alliance rescue vessels will be here in 12 hours. The crew has prepared food in their mess. I recommend you feed those in your number closer to starvation." I said, keeping my tone flat; my mask giving me a deep base note to my voice.

I turned to the others and said openly; "Kingslayer team move out; our work here's done." I made sure I didn't say it on the private channel between the team; this way the slaves knew we were leaving.

"Wait!" the little Asari girl called.

I stopped while the others moved back to the Corvette. "Wipe the camera feeds; don't let any footage of us remain, destroy the computer if you have too." I ordered over the private channel, before switching my mic to open.

"Yes?" I asked, turning only my head.

She shuffled behind the Matrons legs, which made me think she was the woman's daughter; she seemed to gather her courage somewhat, and asked "W-who are you?" stammering somewhat. I lowered my head somewhat pretending to think. There were a few hundred slaves in various cages, all of which had been opened; and all of them were watching me and waiting for my answer.

"Call me Nomad." I said finally, walked through the hatch.

"What are you?!" The girl called frantically.

I stopped again, and this time I hesitated legitimately; I debated it for a moment, and then said, "We are Ghosts, and we don't exist." I walked away, ignoring any further questions.

I boarded the Corvette, making sure I was the last one on board; before I closed the hatch. Archer walked up to me, and I asked "Did you do as I asked?"

She nodded, "Yeah, we wiped camera footage; and installed a virus that made sure it was all destroyed." She paused, and I saw her fishnet covering turn towards me. "What took you so long?" She asked.

I gave her a cheeky grin behind my mask; "Just had to answer a few questions."

* * *

"No daddy! Stop! I can't breathe!" June wailed, huffing and panting.

"What's that? Keep tickling you? Don't mind if I do!" I exclaimed with a wide smile.

"Nooooooo!" she wailed, descending into giggling fits as I started tickling her again. She had finally acclimated enough to me that we could actually play together outside her bubble in the clean room with no fear of a reaction.

June crawled fanatically trying to get away from me while I acted like a big hulking monster trying to grab her feet.

_KnockKnockKnock!_

I sighed angrily while June hid under her bed; still giggling like mad. I pulled up the feed from the door camera; seeing Colt standing there looking annoyed. "What's the pass code?" I asked sarcastically.

"_Screw you Nomad, let me in!" _he grumbled loudly.

I hit the unlock key, and Colt walked in; making sure to shut the door behind him. He gave a big smile on seeing June crawl out from under her bed. "Hi Mr. Colt!" She said, waving her grey skinned hand at him.

I grinned, and seeing my chance; started tickling her under her armpit. "NO! DADDY NOOoooo!" She wailed dramatically, before descending into a mess of laughter. Colt just shook his head while grinning like an uncle watching his favorite niece.

After a minute, June finally calmed down to the point I didn't have to chase her around the clean room to get her to sit down. I picked her up, and sat down on her bed; setting her on my lap. She yawned and leaned her head into my shoulder, closing her glowing mercury eyes. I looked up at Colt, who had set up a stool at the entrance to the clean room; and was watching the whole thing with a big grin on his face.

"Enjoying yourself August?" He asked, sounding pretty amused.

"I think June is certainly enjoying yourself, aren't you honey?" I replied, tilting my head down to look at her.

She gave me a big smile, and tilted her head; "Yeah!" she cheered.

I looked back at him; "I assume this isn't a social call." I said.

"No… it's not." He replied, his grin still on his face "Here, let me show you." He turned on the TV with his omnitool, and the holographic screen flipped on. It was a news report from the Citadel News Network.

"_Today, an Alliance spokesmen released a statement regarding the Pirate slaving freighter captured last week in the Terminus systems. The vessel was boarded by Alliance Marines, and found that the entire crew of Batarian pirates had been killed._

_The Captain was handcuffed and left alive; and was taken prisoner when Alliance vessels arrived on the scene. _

_The Slaves had already been freed from their pens, and were immediately escorted aboard Alliance warships for medical treatment and given food and water. After they had been sufficiently clothed and fed, the Slaves were questioned as to who freed them. _

_A group of soldiers had apparently boarded the vessel and killed the crew; and freed the slaves, giving them weapons and food before leaving. One witness was able to draw two of the soldiers; and we have a copy here on screen."_

The screen blinked and changed to a black and white drawing. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, they had gotten somethings wrong of course; but it looked a lot like me. My hooded cloak, and my revolver were drawn quite clearly; but the rest was kind of… off for lack of a better term.

The other photo was of Archer, her fishnet helmet and cloak was also clearly drawn. But again, it looked slightly off; enough that I wasn't really afraid of anyone identifying us by our armor alone.

"_What do you think of this Zenrizia?" _

"_I don't really know what to make of it, but I have never seen an outfit like this in my three hundred years of being a news anchor. But I won't debate their effectiveness; they killed over thirty Batarian slavers, and freed a vessel of over two hundred slaves. They have my thanks I say; did any of the freed slaves manage to identify them?"_

"_Many of the slaves said they saw a military patch commonly seen with human military units. One Drell memorized the patch; he said it had a skull with a beret on it, and had the words 'D Co. 1__st__ BN. 5__th__ SFG' embroidered on the top. On the bottom it had the words 'Ghost Recon' embroidered on it._

_One Asari child asked the leader who he was; he replied by saying, and I'm quoting the witnesses here, 'Call me Nomad.' And when he was about to leave, the girl asked him what he and his men were; he replied by saying, 'We are Ghosts, and we don't exist.' It would seem to me that this is a sort of clandestine unit based on the evidence._

_We have of course asked the Alliance for information regarding these 'Ghosts.' They have predictably denied such a units existence, with official statements saying; 'there is no such unit under the name of Ghost Recon.'"_

"_An expected response I suppose. On to other news…"_

I switched the TV off, a huge grin on my face. "This is good, beyond getting my cloak and revolver drawn; and getting Archers fishnet helmet, they don't have any real way to identify us. Well there's the patch of course, but no one but humans pay attention to those. Just enough info gets leaked out that other Travelers will get alerted to our existence." I said, feeling rather excited.

I held my hand out, and June hi-fived it with a huge grin.

Colt was still smiling, but I did see a bit of concern flash across his features; "True, already Schultz has been contacted by three more travelers; ones in the terminus nearby, the other two are in human space. The only problem is this will attract attention from Aria, the Shadow Broker, and the Illusive Man."

I shrugged. "Was bound to happen eventually, it's better this way; as far as the warlords are concerned, we're just a band of mercs or some black ops guys that don't exist." June yawned, and her eyes started to drift closed.

I smiled and put her into her bed, tucking her in and giving her a quick kiss on her forehead; thank full she had finally adapted enough to me that I could safely do that. I walked out of her room, cycling through the miniature airlock in the entrance.

"Besides… Who's going to take the words of a few, starving and delusional slaves seriously?"

* * *

_/FLASHCOM_

_/PRIORITY MESSAGE_

_/CLASSIFIED; TOP SECRET_

_FROM: Adm. Steven Hackett_

_To: Capt. David Anderson, N7_

_David, I don't know who the hell pulled off that raid on that slaver ship; but whoever they were, they sure as hell were not Alliance. I've been asking around trying to see if anyone else had been running any secret programs I didn't know about; get some people to let something slip, you know how it is._

_Nothing._

_As far as the Admiralty is concerned, there is no such thing as "Ghost Recon," they think them to be some sort of mercenary group, or rouge N7's. I don't feel the same. I want you to go to the Terminus, and start looking around for these guys; whoever they are, they are carrying out clandestine ops in our name._

_That must change._

_Before you say anything I know you have yet to receive a replacement XO, but this is priority Anderson. The Prime Minister feels the same way; either we button this group up, or get them on our side._

_Good Luck._


	5. All I want for Christmas is some Eezo

"And you're sure that this mask is necessary?" Tavia asked, looking at me suspiciously and with a hint of exasperation.

"Of course, this can fit under a bandanna; my other mask can't." I replied with a bit of a cheeky grin as I spied Archer, Colt, and Phil checking out their new armor and equipment to make sure it all fit.

We had two "uniforms" now.

I had decided that we needed two different armor sets for field operations and the like. One was our "Mercenary" garb; the black, grey, and dark green armor set and the Kevlar cloak and slightly mismatched armor setup. We would wear that when we wanted to operate under "Plausible deniability;" Our wolf getup would only be used from now on for when we interacted with civilians.

Our new uniform was our "Official Soldier" garb. We would wear a vacuum rated black skintight under suit; with an urban digital camo tactical polo over top of it, and a pair of cargo pants with the same digital urban camo. Black combat boots for the feet, also vacuum rated with magnetic soles for zero G environments.

On top of that, there was the black combat vest and chest armor; shoulder and leg armor as well. Black and grey helmet with built in shades and a blue HUD, and the mask which covered the lower half of the face and would seal with the helmet and visor. And last but not least, the obligatory dark grey and white skull bandana. This would be the "official" Ghost armor for when we met Commander Shepard.

It had been a month since our first operation as Ghosts.

Since then, we had been raising silent hell in the Terminus system; beyond our first outing, we had cut back on civilian interaction to almost nothing; only interacting with civilians directly only if a life was at stake. The Ghosts had jumped from seven Travelers, and two non-Travelers; to over fifty travelers and ten non-travelers now.

Most had been from my survey; I hadn't tracked them down due to constraints on my time and looking after June. They had also been suspicious of me as well, so the more tech savvy Travelers made sure I couldn't trace them.

Schultz had been in citadel space tracking down ones that I had traced, when he was found by ten more Travelers; they had also bound themselves together with the same goals as us. After Schultz put me in touch with their leader; I grilled them for a bit on how they came together.

For lack of a better term, luck…

All of them had been piled into a pickup truck when they apparently hit a tractor trailer; and they all woke up piled in a group. The leader was Batarian under the pseudonym of Obram Coksewar, along with his sister who had also become a Batarian; they had a Krogan and a Turian as well, while the rest were humans.

After much debate, it was decided that Obram would be the Citadel Station Chief; he had already set up a safe house there, and under Schultz's careful direction he had begun sniffing around for other Travelers. 1800 had taken my survey, but I had a sneaking suspicion that there were a lot more out there that had never bothered taking it.

Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I turned my attention back to Tavia; "This is for more official ops, you know how spooky shit works; sometimes we can identify who we're with, other times we were never there."

Tavia snorted, and tried rolling her eyes; but it didn't really look right since she was a Turian. "Do you even know who you're working for?" I kept my face level, trying not to look shifty; "A man employed in the alliance, I can't say more though; operational security and all that." I said.

She looked unconvinced; but accepted my answer regardless. "Alright, good enough for me I suppose; Blackwatch did similar things when I was employed in it. But you Humans have an inclination to espionage that rivals the Salarians, let me tell you." She grumped.

My interest was piqued slightly, but I ignored it.

"Hey Nomad." Archer said. I looked up, and saw her holding June; a smile on her face. Colt and Phil had their skull bandana's up, but I could tell they were smiling as well behind their masks as well. I tilted my head, "What is it?" I asked.

"The _Spirit of Fire_, we found it!"

* * *

"I'll get fire team Kingslayer up and running; hell, I'll bring all the Ghosts off Omega except for those in deep cover positions. No reason for us to continue operating here beyond intelligence gathering. Don't go onboard the ship guys, let's clear it and make sure there truly is nothing on that ship." I ordered.

"Roger that Nomad."

"Understood."

I nodded and signed out; and then leaned back in my chair, rubbing my eyes. I quickly dialed Schultz, and looked over at June. The kid was tinkering around with some parts I had gotten her and was trying to make a combat drone. I smiled, and turned my attention back to the screen as Schultz's bearded face greeted me.

"Nice new uniform Nomad!" Schultz's German accented voice boomed at me through the screen.

I chuckled but didn't take the bait; everyone liked to poke fun at me for shamelessly plagiarizing other video games that didn't exist in this universe. "I assume you heard that we found it?"

"Of course! I was the one who gave you that info in the first place; at least now we know the source we have in the Alliance is genuine." He replied.

I raised an eyebrow but didn't pursue the comment further; Schultz's agents were his business. I didn't want to know how he got his information; mainly because something told me I wouldn't like his answers.

"What kind of shape is she in?" He asked.

"About as well as could be expected; we need to replace the main reactor, Dr. Heliix and Arc plan to put in the Autumn class fusion reactor we designed to augment the systems and drastically reduce the amount of Eezo the thing gulps down.

The point defense lasers and the main gun need to be replaced as well; but Arc tells me it's just a simple matter of getting Eezo infused magnetic coils that can fit inside the space we have available. It'll be tough to find; but if we get the materials we need, we'll have a portable super MAC.

All the rest of the stuff, like food, weapons and infantry equipment shouldn't be too hard to find. We'll need shuttles, fighters, and bombers though; it's a troop assault carrier, her main strength is the aircraft.

Beyond that, we just need fuel." I stopped talking to take a breath while Schultz looked slightly amused.

"So in other words, not as bad as we feared; but not as good as we hoped for essentially." He said.

"Yeah…" I replied, rubbing my head in frustration.

For being left in a scrapyard for over thirty years, she was in remarkably good shape. The original name of the ship, the _SSV Agamemnon_ was one of a kind; but due to the treaty of Farixen and because of its Eezo consuming alcoholic-like tendencies, the alliance had no need of it and had no reason to convert it. Hopefully they wouldn't mind if we took it from the scrap yard.

I had a sneaking suspicion the only reason the thing hadn't been cut apart for scrap yet was because the alliance wanted to use it for when the treaty no longer applied; or when they became a council race.

There was just one small problem.

"We need more Eezo to power the thing, at least until the Doc gets the Autumn Class reactor installed and up and running." I said.

Schultz grimaced, "Yeah I was looking at its fuel consumption; there's no way we can scavenge that much Eezo at a sustainable rate. The only places we can get that much Eezo is from council affiliated races, or from one of the Terminus crime lords."

I shook my head; "And purchasing this much Eezo is going to put us on the radar; which is the exact opposite of what we want. The STG and the AIC will immediately try infiltrating us, if they haven't already."

We both sat there for a minute, thinking over what we should do about it. Then I looked over at June as her combat drone glowed blue for a moment; it floated for a few seconds before it started sputtering and then dropped back to the ground, much to her disappointment.

A light bulb went off in my head, and I smiled; "Well… there is one non-council affiliated race that we can go to."

Schultz blinked, and then looked at June; before looking back at me, "That's a horrible idea."

"And it's the only one we got."

* * *

"The amount of Element Zero you need is not something that we will trade away to some common mercenaries just for these… fake schematics! Do you take us for fools?" Admiral Rael'Zorah sneered in anger over the call, the other four Admirals holograms shifting slightly as he spoke.

I closed my eyes, _Deep Breath_ I reminded myself.

"No Admirals, I don't. It's why I came to your people rather than my own. And as I said before we are not Mercenaries, we're-" I started.

"'An Elite Special Forces Unit that does not exist' Yes, yes, as you have told us Captain; Do tell how did you come up with these designs? After much examination they appear to be scientifically sound, this 'Autumn Class Reactor' as you call it is ingenious. With it we won't need to use Eezo to power most of our ship functions." Admiral Daro'Xen said, talking almost as fast as a Salarian with excitement.

I kept my face straight, as I said; "The details behind its development are classified ma'am."

Internally, I was cursing my decision to wear a Dress Uniform rather than my Ghost Armor or my Wolf Armor; with my armor I would be able to keep my face concealed. Before arranging the meeting, which in itself was a nightmare but we managed, I knew we needed to look legitimate.

So I decided to wear a Dress Uniform.

I initially thought it would be a simple matter of just taking the Systems Alliance Army's Dress Uniform; but nope, it wasn't that simple. You see the Systems Alliance Army, at least in this universe, was largely a militia force. The best comparison I can think of would be the National Guard from the United States; Trained to act like an actual Army and deployed as such in an emergency, but they were often confined to their home planet and rarely left.

They were bottom of the totem pole as far as the rest of the military was concerned, they got the oldest equipment, weren't respected at all, and seen as joke by the rest of the military. They didn't even have an official Dress Uniform, and most just went with regular Alliance Dress Blues. They didn't even have a Special Forces Unit, to my surprise.

I will admit that treatment did piss me off a little bit.

So, I went and had the US Army's 2020 "Pinks and Greens" made as our Dress Uniform. Khaki button up Shirt, and Pants; Brownish-Green "bomber" Jacket, Tie, with the officers "Service Cap" with the bronze Eagle clutching a bundle of arrows and an olive branch.

The silver "railroad bars" of a captain on my shoulder boards, A patch of the symbol of the Systems Alliance Army on my left arm just below the boards; the unit patch of "Ghost Recon" on the opposite.

For my lapels, on the left were the bronze crossed rifles, indicating infantry; on the right was the bronze "S.A." meaning "Systems Alliance." Then came the medals and ribbons; and I admit, that stumped me slightly.

The Systems Alliance did issue medals and ribbons, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that one; I didn't want to give myself fake awards and look like a self-glorifying jackass; and two, if someone wanted to check the records of my ribbons they would see I was never entered for them in the first place.

Phil had solved that problem by correctly pointing out that there were dozens of clandestine Ops that did award medals and ribbons, but the participants would be forever classified and sealed up in paper documents never to be accessed.

That helped, but then came the issue of people who actually were on that op recognizing the ribbon and pointing it out.

Eventually I just said "Fuck it" and went with the safe route; Soldiers Medal, Meritorious Service, Defense Meritorious, Army Distinguished Service, Legion of Merit, Army Good Conduct, Armed Forces Expeditionary, and the Armed Forces Service Ribbons.

All of them were ambiguous as to how I could have earned them, and they were all awards in the System Alliance Army. The only two medals I wore was the Distinguished Marksman and Pistol Shot medals, since I did qualify for both of them.

Again, easily obtainable and earned; ambiguous and easily classifiable as to how I earned them.

"I don't think these are enough to justify giving you this Eezo Captain; yes they look good in design, but what about in practice? We would like to build and test this Super MAC and Autumn Reactor first, and if they work; we'll give you the Eezo." Zaal'Koris said, being more diplomatic.

I narrowed my eyes, "How long would that take?" I asked, already figuring a rough estimate.

"About 4 months." Han'Gerral Replied.

I ground my teeth slightly; regretting I had shaved my beard down to a goatee and moustache, making it harder to hide such actions. "I'm sorry to say that's unacceptable; we need that Eezo Admirals. There must be some way that we can prove our intentions are genuine." I replied.

Admiral Raan, who had been quiet up to this point, finally spoke up; "Well… there is one way." She said, catching my attention immediately. I looked at her through my glasses and nodded, gesturing for her to go on.

She bowed her head slightly, then said; "Recently, we found a Blue Suns outpost close to the Migrant Fleet. We were contemplating sending a team of Marines to deal with them, but we suspect there may be prisoners being held."

"You would like my troopers to assist your Marines." I finished, I pretended to contemplate it, then nodded; "That sounds reasonable Admirals; I myself, and three Troopers will land on the planet at the same time your marines."

"Four Soldiers? What kind of help is that?" Admiral Zorah scoffed.

I gave a smile that probably came of as very wolf like. "Oh you shall see Admiral."

* * *

"Boss you sure using non-Eezo based guns is a good idea?" Phil asked, as I double checked my .50 Caliber Beowulf Assault Rifle; After making sure it was all good, I said "They're .50 Cal's; they have the brute stopping power to punch through most shields and Armor. Plus, it makes us virtually untraceable; no one uses chemical based weaponry anymore."

He nodded, and yanked the charging handle on his LMG; then strapped it to himself, and went to double checking his parachute was still good. I was still leery about parachuting into a planet; but there was no way to reach the rendezvous point on time without being detected.

"What's the plan Nomad?" Archer asked me as she slid more mags into the pouches on the vest.

"That depends on the Quarian commander on the ground; their op, their call. Personally, I'm leaning towards splitting us up; Phil goes with me, and we survey the area and keep the guards occupied. Archer, you and Colt will sneak inside and find any potential prisoners."

I paused, "But that's just my opinion, don't know what the commander will do."

"_Coming up on the drop zone Cap."_ The pilot said over the speakers, the ramp opening up into the open air as he said that.

"Okay show time. Go to red!"

"HUA!" They shouted.

We stood at the ramp of the shuttle the Quarians had given us, and waited; I felt a bit of primal fear spike within me. _What the fuck am I doing? Why am I standing in front of a several thousand foot drop? _I thought frantically. I will admit, I have acrophobia; I had it then, I still have it now. But I shoved it down, no way was I letting myself look like a pussy in front of my friends.

Red turned to Green.

"GO!" I shouted, and ran out the ramp; closing my eyes so I didn't see how high up we were.

For a person who had only practiced parachuting once; and had been scared shitless the entire time, it went pretty well. I didn't break any bones and landed with only a few bruises to show for it; and best of all, there was no one around to see me flail about like a drunken monkey trying to keep my chute from getting caught up in wind.

Small blessings.

After bundling the chute up and stowing it away; I unstrapped my Beowulf from my back, and slowly started making my way to the rally point. The planet we had deployed on, which I have long forgotten the name of, was a jungle world; trees close to being six feet around, underbrush covering every inch of ground, and swamps everywhere.

I checked my HUD, I was about two clicks from the rendezvous point; Colt had landed about one click to my east, Archer about a half a click to my west, and Phil…

I blinked, and double checked the HUD; "Fucking showoff," I grumbled to myself. He had landed right on top of the rendezvous point, and was already waiting for us. I keyed the mic, "This is Nomad, I am two clicks south of the rally point; making my way there now."

May as well let the others know I'm on my way.

"Saw you drop in Nomad, did you break into my vodka stores? Because that wasn't exactly a good landing." Phil joked.

"Fuck you."

* * *

As I came through the bushes, my active camo unit turned on just in case; I swept the clearing with my Beowulf. Seeing Phil's marker placed in the bushes on the opposite side; I whistled the tune, "Oly Oly Oxen Free." Aliens like Asari, Batarians, and Quarians might be able to replicate the sound; but they would have to know what it was and how to do it first.

"All out in the free, We're all free." He whistled back, "All clear Boss." He added in a whisper.

"Any sign of the Quarians?" I asked.

"Nah, nothing on thermals as well; tried the drone, but I couldn't see shit with all this growth." He replied.

I grunted as Archer stumbled into the clearing, turning off her camo unit. "Fucking hell, it's hot as balls." She growled.

"Stealth Op." I hissed angrily, reminding her to re-cloak and take a defensive angle. She immediately did so, I couldn't see behind her bandana; but I could tell she was slightly embarrassed at her little slip up.

There was a slight rustle in the bushes to the right, but none of us bothered to look; the bright blue outline of our HUDs letting us know it was Colt. He took up the fourth angle, making sure his cloak was still active; then whispered into the Team Comms, "Saw our friends on the way here, their taking things slow from the looks of it. Took the liberty of using the drone to spy on them a little, it's what took me so long."

I sighed, of course he would; but I couldn't fault him for it, in our line of work you couldn't be sure who would help you, and who would double cross you. "Are they friendly, or did the Admirals fuck us over?" I asked.

"Funny, they were wondering the same thing; they've been here for about two days, so they're a little on edge. Just make sure you say the pass phrase when they set up here sir, anything that doesn't identify themselves will get shot." He reported.

"How long till they get here, cause I'm already tired of having to sit on my ass in the mud." Archer grumbled.

"About an hour, maybe two if they decide to stop for takeout."

Great… at least our active camo units could easily stay active for that long, provided we didn't stress them too much.

"Well since we have to pass the time… do you know any jokes?" Phil asked.

* * *

"…after that though, to the total disbelief of the Air Force, the same Cessna showed up again. Once again, the MP's surrounded the plane... Only this time there were two people in the plane. The same pilot jumped out and said, "Do anything you want to me, but my wife is in the plane and you have to tell her where I was last night!"" Colt said; finishing up his little story with a loud cackle. "Oh, here's a good one; an air-"

"I think that's enough 'stories' for one day." I ground out, wanting to tear my earpiece off.

"But-"

"If you tell another one of your Goddamned stories Colt; you will be the first person I shoot today." Archer hissed, just as exasperated as the rest of us.

"Aww…" I could see his outline deflate slightly, and I shook my head. We had been sitting around for close to two hours now, with no sign of the Quarian Marines. I was beginning to get very annoyed at the wait; especially since Colt had seen them on his way here. We each had taken a cardinal direction in the bushes just outside the clearing, and had begun turning our camo units off and on every twenty minutes to save power. Eventually we would need to put them on our solar chargers; but we still had a bit before it came to that.

Growling, I deployed my drone and zipped it up above the bushes to see if I could find anything.

_Crash!_

All four of us froze, and I immediately put the drone on standby and turned off the control pad. I made sure my camo unit was still on and slowly made my way towards the noise. "Hold position, I'll check it out." I whispered.

After getting a series of affirmatives, I brought my Beowulf up; making sure to disturb the foliage as little as possible. I crouch walked over to where the noise had come from, and stopped; tilting my head. I could have sworn I just heard something; I narrowed my eyes, and made sure I didn't move a muscle.

I sat and waited for at least five minutes; I could feel my impatience was starting to get to me, but I tamped it down. I didn't dare move, because the camo unit may have been good, but it wasn't perfect.

Sure enough, the shrubbery shifted slightly; and a gun poked out from behind, a Quarian holding it tight.

I didn't think it possible, but I tensed up even more; my butthole was clenched so tight that you wouldn't be able to fit a needle in between the crack. The Quarian's glowing mercury eyes swept across the area, passing over me completely. After a moment, he whispered; "No hostiles in the area Sergeant, but no sign of our help either." I didn't hear what the Sergeant told him, but I did hear his reply; "Yes sir, moving to the rally point now; hope our backup's there, did command say who they were?"

A pause…

"Great, so it's my ass hanging in the fire since I'm on point." He grumbled; then he jerked, and put his hand up to where his ear would be, wincing. I let a tiny smile spread across my face, figuring he was getting chewed out.

"Yes Sergeant, moving now." He said, and then started his cautious advance to the rally point.

I let him pass, before releasing the breath I had been holding; I immediately recalled my drone, knowing I couldn't let it keep hovering around, and then got on the radio. "Guys, Quarians are here; their point man will be at the rally point soon, don't engage. Let them gather up in group, and then we introduce ourselves." I whispered.

There was a series of clicks answering in the affirmative, just as the rest of the Quarians appeared through the brush. My eyes bulged out of their sockets as I spied one in particular; the white, grey, and red suit and purple visor being clear dead ringers of who it was.

Sergeant Kal'Reegar; badass migrant fleet marine, and one of the most loved minor characters in the games.

"Sergeant, I heard a rumor;" I heard one Quarian whisper as they walked past.

"What would that be kid?" He gruffly replied, his voice just like the one in the games; albeit with more of a Kheelish accent, probably because in the game his voice actor wasn't able to pull off the Eastern European sounding accent convincingly. Since this was real life, he had the proper accent.

"That they sent humans to reinforce us." The young Marine replied, sounding like he was barely out of his teens.

"Why would the Admirals send humans to help us? They wouldn't want to help us; they're probably just some mercs that we'll have to babysit or something." Reegar grumbled, his voice fading away as the last Quarian vanished from view.

I had counted at least twelve, and probably missed some as well. I took a quick breath, and then moved to follow them. _I just hope they aren't in a shoot first kind of mood._ I thought.

* * *

Sergeant Reegar was used to hard missions; many in the fleet considered him to be one of the best Marines in the fleet, even if he didn't consider himself to be anything special. He was just a soldier, plain and simple.

He was used to vague and confusing orders, but this one had to be one of the more aggravating ones, he had to admit.

_Who in the Ancestors are these people that the Admirals decide to completely divert my team to meet them._ He wondered, somewhat irritated. In the heat of combat, he wouldn't have questioned it. Experience told him that oftentimes if you were ordered to move to a new position in combat, there was a reason for it.

But out here? They had been scouting this facility out for the past two days, and all of a sudden; command gives him reinforcements, with express orders telling him to meet with them?

Something was up, that much was obvious.

Kal had to suppress a growl of annoyance as another giant leaf hit him in the visor; it didn't really do much, except smear his visor with dew, which he had to wipe off lest it affect his field of vision. He wasn't told numbers, species, or capabilities; just a name.

A Captain, who went under the code name of "Nomad."

Reegar hated spies, and the way everything was being handled just reeked of spies and all that shit. What was worse was that this essentially meant that command of this op was no longer his. Normally that wasn't much of a bother, provided he actually knew the person; or at least could judge their abilities. He had no clue who this Nomad was, just that he would be giving Kal and his Marines their new orders.

The only reassurance that the grizzled Sergeant could find in this situation, was that the person was a captain; if he was a leader of a ship, and his crew kept him there he at least wouldn't be flat out incompetent.

Hopefully.

As Kal reached the clearing, he saw that his team of twenty marines had already set up a perimeter, and had started setting up tents and mats. They were to remain there until Nomad arrived, and they had no clue when that would be.

Hopefully, it would be soon; because Kal was not exactly a man who like waiting around. He was a man of action; he just hoped he would be seeing some soon.

* * *

"_Fast little buggers, aren't they?" _Phil whispered.

"_They're Marines, what did you expect?" _Colt replied.

"_A bunch of crayon eaters? Or whatever the Quarian equivalent is."_ Archer sniped.

"Cut the chatter." I growled, eyeing up the group of friendlies.

Last thing I wanted was to get shot in the face because they mistook me for a hostile. I heard Sergeant Reegar himself say that it was ridiculous for the Admirals to send humans to help them; so I needed to play this safe.

"Okay, I'll whistle to get their attention; then give the pass phrase. If they accept, I'll de-cloak and talk to them; wait until I give the go ahead before you de-cloak as well. Got it?" I ordered

"Got it Boss." They replied.

I took a breath and whistled.

* * *

Kal whipped his rifle around in the general direction of the noise; the rest of his marines dropping whatever they were doing and grabbing their weapons, forming a loose circle. "What is it Sarge?" One asked, sounding worried.

"I heard a chirping noise, maybe a drone or maybe some local wildlife. I'm not sure."

There was a slight rustling noise from the direction he had heard the noise, and everyone shut up and tensed up. They waited for at least five minutes, then a voice spoke from the emptiness; "I have seen the glory, of the coming of the lord."

It was a male, and it had a slight musical note to it; the accent wasn't one Kal recognized any species having, at least ones he had interacted with. The only ones he hadn't talked to was humans, so that narrowed things down a lot.

Still, he had started the pass phrase; "He shall trample out the vintage, with his terrible swift sword." Kal replied, still not sure who had come up with the phrase; it had slight religious tones from… some species, again probably humans.

"You Sergeant Reegar?" The voice asked, losing its musical tone.

"Yes, who's asking?" Kal replied, a little unnerved that he couldn't see where the person was.

The foliage in front of him suddenly seemed to bend and twist; like heat waves coming from a hot surface almost. He blinked, and suddenly there was a human standing there; one hand holding a giant pistol of a design he didn't recognize, the other held up in the universal sign of _I'm on your side don't shoot me._

His armor and suit was strange; a design that Kal had never seen before, but was clearly human in origin. The black, grey, and white camouflage alone would've turned some heads. The mask covering the lower half of the humans face was what really drew his attention though. It looked like the jaw of a human skull, a clear attempt at intimidation.

It was then the human spoke.

"I am Nomad; Group for Specialized Tactics. And we're here to support your assault Sergeant."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for not updating either of my stories guys.**

**I know you don't want to hear excuses and all that for my lack of any contact whatsoever; so I'll just say why. One, I had burned myself out a little bit and hit a bit of a writer's block for both stories**, **a lethal combination** **for any writer. **

**The other reason is a little clichéd but… Collage. **

**It is such a bastard with your time; I'm spending every moment of every day studying Calculus and Statics; except Sunday, since I go to Mass in the morning.**

**To my younger viewers, the advice I'm going to give you is going to run contrary to what every teacher and parent will tell you; but it needs to be said. Collage is a fucking scam. There are only three fields in which collage is worth it; my field, which is engineering. The Sciences, like biology or chemistry; or the Medical fields like doctors and nurses.**

**Other than that, it's a trap because depending the field you chose, it is such a gamble to get a well-paying job; or it's just flat out unnecessary. **

**Go to either a trade school, or work in a blue collar job, or join the military. We're a peacetime army right now (yes, yes, technically we've never been at peace; but this is the closest we're gonna get to one), and they will do a lot for your education.**

**I grew up in southern Maryland, and I still remember when everyone was one of three things; A farmer, a Fisherman, or a Government Worker. Now? Farming and fishing are looked down on as something "Only one toothed, racist, gun toting rednecks" do.**

**There are millions of blue collar jobs that pay like crazy that are open right now, and young people aren't taking them because their parents and teachers tell them, "You don't want that job, only stupid and uneducated people do them."**

**But enough about life.**

**Updates will still be slow, and I might start doing a minor rewrite of "A House Divided Amongst Itself." Especially the early chapters, But time will tell.**

**A TV Tropes page would be nice, but I'm not expecting it at this point.**

**Please leave reviews guys; they give me so much encouragement to keep writing. (Unless it's a jackass who just says, "Your story sucks and you should kill yourself." Those ones I just find annoying.)**

**Please PM if you're interested in a collaboration or want to bounce story ideas around. Also PM if you want to do fanart of either one of my stories.**

**And I'll see ya when I see ya.**


	6. Assaulting the Compound

After our meeting at the rendezvous point yesterday; Sergeant Reegar and I had sat down to hash out our plan of attack on the blue suns base. There were three important areas that needed attention; first was the inner facility where the suspected prisoners were being held.

It prompted a small debate as to which group was better qualified to sneak inside and secure any Intel and potential hostages. He argued that it was a Quarian operation, and that his people needed to be the ones to secure their objectives. I pointed out that the Ghosts were better at sneaking around and infiltration; our stealth system making us especially qualified to infiltrate the base.

That being said, I did have to admit to him that our hacking abilities were not exactly the best. All four of us being from the 21st century probably had something to do with that; but that wasn't something I would tell him.

So we compromised.

Four of his best infiltrators would go with Archer and Colt, and would sneak inside; my Ghosts would be the forward scouts, and take out anyone that got in their way. The Quarians would extract the intel and free the prisoners.

Second, was that any potential spacecraft that the mercs had hidden in the facility had to be secured to prevent escape. This step was simple, once hell broke loose the Quarians could deal with that; we hadn't brought that many explosives, and if the Quarians wanted to keep the ships and use them, more power to 'em.

The last area was where Phil, Kal, and I came in. We would be the diversion, hit the facility fast and hard; and run like hell while the majority of the garrison chased after us. I really only had one issue with this plan; that being, our asses were hanging out and ripe for the plundering.

Not really, but it sure felt like it. Still, it had to be better than what Schultz was doing… whatever the hell it was he did when he wasn't talking with me.

* * *

"_And you are sure this line is secure?"_ the voice asked.

"Of course sir; like I said, we're professionals. We don't exist." Schultz replied calmly, idly toying with a stylus for his work pad.

"_Good, I shudder to think of the consequences should we be found out." _The voice said.

"As you say every time we talk; In any case, the intel you gave us proved to be quite useful." Schultz pointed out.

"_Not like we could use the damned thing anyway; the modifications you said you're making will definitely make it usable at least." _

"Hm… How goes your efforts to secretly legitimize us sir?" Schultz asked.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line; _"I've got some good news, some good news, and some bad news."_

Schultz raised an eyebrow; "Has subject Savior been determined to be Renegade?" he asked, taking a swing at guessing the possible bad news.

"_No, she's been determined to be Paragon from what files I've gathered with the meager Army security clearance I have. That's the first bit of good news; Bad news or Good news next."_

"I'll take the bad news, let's get it over with." Schultz decided, grabbing the can of beer from his desk and taking a sip.

"_Hackett and Anderson know about us, and are sniffing around to find out who the hell we are." _The voice said, a tint of annoyance edging into their voice.

Schultz paused, before taking another sip; "Well… that's not great, but not horrible; wherever those two go, Shepard goes also. What's the good news then?" he asked.

"_Well… this Army General might know a few things about this secretive group, and might be willing to share it with his Branches chief rivals in exchange for some political clout and support." _The Army General replied, a tint of amusement leaking through the voice modulator.

Schultz stared at the screen for several seconds before leaning back in his chair while narrowing his eyes; "I'm listening…"

* * *

Phil was pretty damned quiet for being such a big bastard; six feet, and ten inches tall and 253 pounds of pure muscle. The guy could do hard labor in a Siberian Gulag, and actually enjoy himself doing it.

I followed in his wake; my Beowulf was up and pointed in a sweep to our east. Kal quietly walked behind me, sweeping with his Adas rifle to the west; along with the four Marines assigned to the diversion following behind us.

I silently cursed them the whole way to our rally point.

Kal was experienced and was silent as the wind; but the rest of his Marines may as well have been stomping around like bulls with how much noise they were making. I knew he picked them for this because we would inevitably be going loud, so stealth would be useless for us.

But goddamn it, my instincts were just screaming at me that these guys were better off left in the dust.

Stealth had always fitted me; my small size and light weight allowed me to sneak up to people with ease, even as a kid. Even though I had never gone through basic training, the past few months of combat had been more akin to hit and run tactics or infiltration and ended up reinforcing that mentality for me.

Front line combat went against my experience. But I could adapt, I had to.

Phil held up his fist, and we all froze and dropped to the ground; bringing up our weapons. Phil and I also activated our camo-units; and I swear I could feel Kal and the other Quarians boring holes into the back of our heads. Both from jealousy and annoyance; they wanted this tech, and they also felt like we were being cowards for not sticking our necks out like they were.

Too bad for them.

I activated the mic, making sure to whisper as I spoke; "What is it Phil?"

There was a pause, and then he said; "Patrol up ahead, 11 o'clock, two of 'em. But I don't doubt there's more sir." He reported.

"I'll put up the drone." I decided.

I heard Kal grumble something under his breath, but I ignored it. I pushed a button, and the tri-bladed drone popped open and started floating. I brought my arm up and set my rifle beside me, guiding the drone to go up and forward.

I watched the screen on my arm pad, slowly moving it to where Phil had seen them; "Got 'em, an Asari and a Turian; Light Armor, carrying submachine guns, pinging now." I hit the marking button, and two red dots appeared on our HUD's; slowly following them as long as my drone kept an eye on them.

After doing a quick fly around to make sure there were no other mercs nearby; I set the drone on standby, and said "Phil and I will take care of them Sergeant."

"As you say Nomad." Kal replied.

I gave a short nod to him, even if he couldn't see it; and the two of us started our advance to the patrolling mercs. "You take the Turian, I got the Asari." I ordered, knowing my small size would handicap me in dealing with the Turian.

"Got it boss… you want to leave one alive to interrogate?" He asked.

I thought about it; we could use some more reliable intel, but they could very easily hop on their radios and try and alert the base we were coming. But… if we were careful we could get updated info on the Sun's patrols and troop movements.

_Why not?_

* * *

Nyxor T'haus was bored; well… as bored as one could be on an alien planet.

She never really wanted to be a merc; but being a young maiden with no influential family members, no place to go, and not smart enough for an education left her with very few options. She refused to sell herself out to some pervert that could never get laid without money, so she took the only option available to her.

With Asari, all that mattered was connections; who knew who, and how close they were. This was why there were many Asari like her in the galaxy; stuck doing less than savory things just to earn a living all because their family wasn't influential enough in the Asari society.

It was things like this that made her bitter against the council.

With Turians and Salarians, at least you could rise up in society if you were skilled enough; didn't matter who you were so long as you could be useful in some way.

An insect bit her exposed neck, which she immediately fried with her biotics.

"Fuck this planet…" She grumbled to her current partner; a grizzled old Turian who she never bothered to learn the name of and a former Blackwatch turned mercenary.

"hmm…" he grunted in reply.

He wasn't a good conversationalist; and she could understand keeping discipline when in battle or at a post, but they were in the middle of fucking nowhere guarding a bunch of Quarians, Turians, Asari, and Salarians for some Batarian slavers. It wasn't like anything interesting happened here anyway. "Why can't anything interesting ever happen around here huh?" she asked.

The Turian grunted again.

"Geez, you could at least say one word; it's kind of rude to just grunt when someone's talking to you." She grumbled.

He grunted a third time, but it sounded strained; like he was choking.

Suspicious, Nyxor slowly turned around; and found herself face to face with what looked like a grinning skull. Her eyes bugged out and she shrieked in fear and surprise, and tried to raise her weapon to kill this unknown hostile.

But in the blink of an eye, it grabbed her gun and tore it from her grasp and threw it to the side and onto the ground.

Nyxor tried to go for her pistol while sending a biotic shockwave at her assailant to gain space; but they were far ahead of her. It drew a knife from its chest armor, and stabbed her right hand through the palm while dropping to all fours to duck below her attack.

Then it swept her legs out from under her, while smashing its armored elbow into her chest; denting her armor and knocking the wind out of her.

She slammed into the ground, smashing her head in the process; stars dancing across her vision.

Before she could even process it, the assassin; for that's what it had to be, yanked its knife out of her hand while pulling her pistol from its holster and tossing it away. She tried to biotically punch the bastard with her good hand; but it dodged out of the way almost casually.

Then, just as she realized she overextended; it grabbed her arm while smashing its foot into her shoulder, and twisted. She choked back a scream as she felt her arm dislocate from her shoulder with a loud _CRACK!_

Her vision turned blue for a moment, then the assassin let go of her arm; and then lifted her up by the armor straps, while twisting her right arm behind her back and forcing her into the kneeling position.

She panted as her vision cleared and the burning pain in her body dulled to a dull ache.

She slowly raised her head to see her Turian partner, being held by one of the biggest humans that she had ever seen. Easily two meters tall, and bulging with muscles; wearing an armor set she had never seen before.

The under suit was a black-grey-white combination that allowing the human to blend in with most environments; the blocky chest piece covered his whole torso, with shoulder pauldrons covering his upper arms and thick braces for the forearms. Thigh, upper leg, knee, and lower leg armor pieces cover him as well; all of the pieces of armor were black.

The head was a mystery; the helmet was differing shades of grey and black, but the visor only seemed to cover the eyes, and was tinted black in the right eye and with, presumably, a light blue heads up display in the left eye.

But the mask… that's what drove fear into her mind and shivers down her spine.

It was dark grey, and covered the humans lower half of its face and all of its neck not already covered by the under suit. Where the human mouth should have been, there was grinning animal skull staring right back at her; similar to the first assassin.

The big human didn't even look at her as he suddenly yanked one of his arms to one side.

A sickening _Crunch_ filled her ears as she watched her partners neck snap. The Turian fell dead, mandibles slack and eyes rolled up in his head as he hit the ground. That's when she felt it, the cool press of a gun to the back of her head.

Nyxor squeezed her eyes shut; _Oh Athame please save me, I don't want to die…_ She begged silently.

The she heard a voice; "Unless you want to end up like your friend there; you'll answer my questions, got it?" It asked.

Male, harsh, with a slight rasp to it; but it still carried a hint of youthfulness to it. But she did not dare question the speaker's conviction. "Yes! Yes, please I don't want to die; I'll tell you anything! Just please don't kill me." She gasped, tears already welling up in her eyes.

This wasn't what she signed on for; this wasn't what she wanted in life.

"Calm down, just answer my questions and we'll let you live." The person holding her growled, sounding slightly annoyed by her begging.

She gulped, "Okay, okay, what do you want to know?" She asked.

"The number of prisoners here and the amount of guards and vehicle support. Tell me, or else Phil here gets creative." He warned.

She looked up at the hulking human in front of her, cracking his knuckles; making loud popping noises. There never really was a choice in her mind; no amount of money in the world was worth this shit.

* * *

I smashed my Pistol into the Asari's temple, knocking her unconscious; and probably giving her a mild concussion for good measure. "Okay Sergeant, move up to our position." I ordered as Phil dug into his back, pulling out a roll of duct tape.

I grabbed a beacon, and activated it; throwing it on the ground next to the Asari.

Phil began taping her mouth shut and taping her arms together as Reegar and his marines reached our position. He looked down at the Asari, then at me; "I hope you got some good intel for us at least." He grumbled

I grimaced; "I got some good news and I got some bad news. The bad news is that the presence of civilian prisoners is now confirmed. At least fifty, probably more; the majority are Quarians, but there are some Asari, Turians, and Salarians thrown in there too.

The good news is that we now have the exact location of the prison hold. I'm uploading the location onto our maps now." I pressed a few buttons, and my mini-map pinged the new location. About two klicks away from our current position, not too far at the rate we had been going.

Archer and Colt would be reaching the compound soon, if they continued moving at the rate they were going during the last status update.

"What about her?" Reegar asked, gesturing to the bound and gagged Asari now lying on the ground.

"We're leavin' her here until we're all wrapped up with clearing the area. I've set a beacon next to her so we can find her again; she'll be a good source for intel when we're done here. Perhaps even blackmail material for some matriarch; and if she gets away before we get here, no real loss. Either she comes back to the base at some point, or she dies out there to animals or starvation." I explained.

Reegar shrugged and started moving towards the compound with his Marines; "I don't care, just as long as I'm not carrying her." He replied. Phil grunted as he hauled up his LMG, making sure the sling rested around his neck comfortably; "I second that." He added, "I refuse to haul you a new girlfriend back to the ship boss."

I rolled my eyes as I holstered my pistol and unslung my Beowulf.

"I don't really need a girlfriend considering I already got a kid; last thing I need is to get another lady knocked up and deal with all the drama again." I joked. Phil just laughed and we started jogging through the jungle; while the Marines looked at each other, before following after us.

* * *

I crawled up to the edge of the foliage, and propped up my Beowulf into a shooting position.

The thing was a custom made beauty of a weapon. It looked like a Bushmaster AR15 with a few attachments to it. It had an ACOG four times scope on it in place of the iron sights; with a crosshair red dot site on top. It also had a gun rail on the bottom, which fitted the Modular Accessory Shotgun System; or in layman's terms, an underslung shotgun for close quarters work.

Thanks to future tech, as opposed to being pump or bolt action like the olden days; this system was full auto, six rounds before requiring cool down. Fifteen rounds were fitted in the main .50 cal. Magazine; and it also had an inferred laser pointer, and a flashlight.

She was a thing of beauty, one that I loved dearly.

One of the things that surprised me was that some old chemical based projectiles were still quite deadly in this age; the .50 cal. Beowulf in particular being a good example. A normal Mass Effect based assault rifle, like all weapons from this universe, fired a slug of sand grain sized pellets at a target at the speed of light.

It was powerful, but it was horribly inaccurate and slow to fire.

My Beowulf in contrast didn't quite have the same stopping power; but it still packed a punch. As opposed to say three to four body shots from a Mass Effected AR to bring down a targets shields; it would take about four to five shots for heavy shielding.

The underslung shot gun was… well it was a shotgun; but it did use Mass Effect tech rather than old shotgun shells. I had bit the bullet and decided that as much as I distrusted the stuff, it wouldn't hurt to have a shotgun with unlimited ammo attached to my assault rifle.

"Archer are you in position?" I asked, sighting a group of mercs standing in a cluster; talking things up it seemed. Mostly made up of Asari and Turians, and a Krogan as well surprisingly enough.

"We're ready Nomad, waiting on you." She replied.

"Copy, Sergeant are you ready?"

"Ready." He said.

I took a deep breath, and slowly released it; targeting the Krogan, I set my sights on his neck, remembering that my .50 cal, even at point blank range, still wouldn't go through the head plate. "I got the Krogan." I whispered.

_234 meters according to the electronic rangefinder, account for 2mph wind blowing east; _I reminded myself, _slower rotation than earth's, gravity is about .95 of earth's so less ballistic drop, no tree's or fences in my way. _

_Squeeze the trigger… let it surpr-_

_BANG!_

The .50 cal. Beowulf Armor Piercing round flew out of the barrel of my Rifle at over 580 meters per second. This Krogan wasn't very smart it seemed, because he didn't even have his kinetic barriers up. Normally, you aim for center of mass; even at the relatively close range we were at.

But for Krogan, you kind of had to make it up as you went along; their head plate made headshots next to impossible and the three hearts made chest shots very impractical unless you had an LMG.

But the neck…

Sure they had massive regenerative properties, but you still kind of needed to breath to use it. Even if they survived the shot, they would still be flailing around choking on blood; making it much easier for you to finish them off.

The round tore through his throat, taking a huge chunk with it.

Even though the merc had his helmet on, I could almost imagine the giant lizard's eyes bulging out of his skull in pain and surprise. He dropped his gun and shot his arms up to his throat, dropping to his knees.

_Perfect…_

Six more shots quickly followed, each requiring only minor adjustments to my aim. The first three were meant to break his armor; the last three would each take out one of his hearts. I guess I overestimated the quality of his armor, because it visibly cracked after just two shots. The other four tore through his chest, leaving gaping holes with blood pouring out of them.

He dropped to the ground, his flailing having become much weaker and more sporadic.

Then Phil opened up; his PKP Pecheneg machine gun ripping the air with tracer fire. When the others saw me using the Beowulf, they had demanded that they have their own firearms from our time period.

I acquiesced on the condition that the guns they chose had the brute stopping power or ability to match Mass Effect weaponry; namely being able to break barriers with a similar amount of rounds as a mass effect weapon. And above all else they needed a Mass Effect based weapon as a backup in case they ran out of ammo; it wasn't like they could scavenge for more.

Getting ammo off of the battlefield was actually pretty easy; just plug it into a metal fabricator on a ship and it would start producing the rounds needed.

Archer had gone with the Benelli M4 Super 90; 21st century 12 gauge armor piercing slugs were still very effective, and actually common with many human criminals due to its effectiveness.

Colt had gone with a .50 cal. Beowulf like me, but had used the SIG Sauer MCX model for his guns appearance; and rather than the mass effect based underslung shotgun that I used, he used a 40mm grenade launcher instead.

And Phil of course, had gone with the PKP Pecheneg.

The rounds had ripped through the gathered mercs like paper, many crumpling dead; while the rest rushed to cover, having their barriers to thank for being still alive. Then Reegars Marines opened up on them, having positioned themselves about 100 meters to our right; and as a result had a much better angle of attack. More of the mercs dropped dead; an alarm began blaring in the compound, resulting in several dozen more to start streaming out of the buildings in the facility; all holding weapons and looking far more alert.

_This is where the fun begins. _I thought, grinning

* * *

"Archer, you're good to go; try and be quick while we tidy things up out here." I radioed, instinctively ducking as several slugs whizzed close by.

They had started to get a bead on us, so I said; "Sergeant, Phil and I are repositioning; keep an eye out for any flankers."

"Copy that, move fast because these _Bosh'tets _are quick learners; we'll need to move soon." He replied.

I quickly slinked back farther into the foliage while Phil slung his LMG over his back; attaching it to the magnetic clamps on our backs, and making sure the sling was over his shoulder. He pulled out his mass effect based SMG and gave a quick burst, before taking off in a run towards the western side of the compound.

We went about 30 meters before setting ourselves back up at the edge of the tree line.

I sighted a Turian who appeared to be a Commander; his more expensive looking armor and more collected demeanor giving me a clue as to who he was. "Potential commander sighted."

He was trying to rally the mercs into better defensive positions; and it seemed to be working, the mercs seemed to be getting over their panic and were organizing themselves for a counter attack. I took a breath, and then released it.

_BANG!_

The Turian jumped, startled at his barriers flaring despite being in cover. I rapid fired several shots, breaking his barrier; then blowing a hole right in his head. At the same time, Phil started firing his LMG again; ripping through the mercs as they tried to rally themselves behind cover.

Realizing they had been flanked, the Blue Sun mercs tried to retreat to another set of defenses; but Kal and his Marines quickly cut down any that attempted to flee.

It had taken only minutes, but we had already killed at least four dozen mercs; about a quarter were just from Phils constant spraying. There were about twenty left, all scattered and disorganized in the compound. "Demolition team, Infiltration team, Sitrep." I called, as I shot a Salarian that had peeked his head out of cover.

"Corporal 'Rezu here; all hostiles eliminated, Blue Suns transports are secured Captain." The demolition team reported.

"Archer here sir, we've hit a snag."

I looked at Phil, and he shrugged. "What is it?" I asked.

"We found the prisoners; seems like you were right, Blue Suns were holding them for the Batarians. But that isn't the issue, the issue is that a Krogan Battlemaster and an Asari Matriarch broke out, and are tearing up the facility trying to escape. Wait…"

_Shit;_ I thought, that couldn't be good.

"Sir I just spoke with one of the slaves! The Blue Suns have a second pen of slaves; they're going to try to burn them to death to cover up their involvement. The Battlemaster and Matriarch were the only ones combat trained and in good enough shape to mount a rescue; they need our help now!" Archer exclaimed.

"Fuck! Sergeant can you hold these guys here?" I asked.

"Yes, now go!" He replied.

"Alright Phil let's go!"

"This is gonna suck." he groaned as he hoisted his LMG up, but not before putting in a new drum of ammo. The way things were going, we were going to need it.

* * *

We half jogged, half ran to the compound; keeping our guns up and heads on the swivel to make sure none of the mercs blindsided us by playing possum. We rushed up to one of the buildings, then I switched to the teams private channel and said, "Private channel guys; Archer, what are you not telling me?"

There was a pause, then "Sir, the Battlemaster's Urdnot Wrex; and the Matriarch is Aethyta."

I stumbled, while Phil recoiled as if he had been struck.

"What?" was all I managed to say before Colt said, "Look boss, this universe is clearly different than the… original. I think it's safe to say that we're in unknown territory."

Phil grumbled something before saying; "Look can we discuss the mysteries of the universe later and get on with saving their asses?"

"Right, what building are they in Archer." I asked.

"Hacking the feeds now, they're in the building next to yours; they're pinned down, Wrex seems to have his armor while Aethyta doesn't; Weapons seem to be scavenged, they're in trouble Nomad." She said, concern leaking into her voice.

I could understand why, this hadn't been referred to in any of the games or books; looking back on it now, this should have been our first hint canon was already going off the rails. But being in the middle of a firefight while trying to rescue slaves, we just shrugged it off as something never covered in the source material.

"Alright, Phil we're going up; Archer, Colt use your camo and sneak up behind the mercs. We'll hit them from all sides and just pray that Wrex and Aethyta are at least somewhat sensible." I ordered.

* * *

Wrex loved a good fight, and this one was one of the better jobs he'd been given in a long while. Having to rescue his partner for getting her own cover busted however was not something he liked.

"Way to keep your fucking head 'thyta, and you say I'm the hotheaded one." He grumbled as slugs flew over their heads.

"He was rapin' a little girl, what did you want me to do." She snapped in reply, launching a singularity at the cluster of the dozen or so mercs that had them pinned down.

Wrex just rolled his eyes, and quickly popped up and fired a blast from his shotgun at one of the mercs she'd managed to catch. The Turians head exploded and went limp, and Wrex ducked again before any of the others could get a shot at him.

It had seemed like such a simple job, especially for the "Gruesome Twosome."

A couple of weeks ago, they had been approached by a Matriarch; who begged them to infiltrate this branch of the Blue Suns because, "Oh my dearest little Nyxor is missing, and she was last seen near that area." Wrex didn't really care, so long as the money was good; but Aethyta was a bit of a sucker for a sob story, so they agreed.

Then a few days into the mission, Aethyta had discovered that the Suns had been hired by the Batarians to guard these slaves for them until they came to pick them up.

The Batarian Pirates in the terminus had really taken a hit to their profits. Many shipments of slaves mysteriously not reaching their destinations, Escort vessels found adrift with their crews dead and all the data onboard wiped from the data banks.

Grateful slaves saying "Skull faced humans" had rescued them.

So the Batarians had taken to contracting Mercenary Groups like the Blue Suns to look after their "Product" until they could gather enough escorts for the slave ships.

Wrex and Aethyta had decided to quietly alert the nearest force they could find to get these slaves to safety, which turned out to be the Quarians; this being mostly pragmatism on Wrexs part since their missing person was likely a slave.

It wasn't because he had a soft spot for slaves, definitely not.

Then Aethyta had gone and blown her cover because a young Turian girl had been about to be raped by an Asari Maiden. That very quickly got her thrown in with the slaves, and stripped of pretty much everything; including her clothes, much to Wrex's amusement.

Eventually, the Quarians had arrived, and started wreaking havoc on the outside from the sounds of things. Using the chaos being created, Wrex had slipped into the pens and killed the guards while freeing the slaves.

Then Aethyta, grabbing clothes and weapons from a dead guard; told him about the secondary slave pens, and how the suns intended to burn them down to hide the evidence of their complicity with the Batarians.

If Aethyta had had armor, they could have reached the pens in minutes; but since she had only ragtag cloth covering her, they had to take things slow. Which led them to here, pinned down and looking for a way to break the stalemate.

"Any ideas?" Wrex asked, as he popped up and took another shot.

Aethyta looked up, and ducked as a slug flew dangerously close to her face. "I can cover you in a biotic shield, you use your biotics to do the same; and we just barrel through them to the next building." She suggested.

"That'll drain you to the point of collapse, much less be able to run with me." He pointed out.

"You can carry me, I like being on top anyway." She replied, collapsing her gun; while taking deep breaths.

Wrex picked her up and cradled her, tensing his leg muscles in preparation for the sprint; then a massive explosion from the roof caused them both to pause. They watched as the Suns started dying left and right, five of them scrambled out into the center of the room before being cut down by a hail of… something.

It wasn't slugs that much they could tell.

One merc stumbled and fell right in front of them; Werx having set Aethyta down by this point. The Merc looked up at them, and then his head exploded. Wrex looked up and saw two ropes flop down to the center of the room, and then two figures rappelled down from the roof; while two more appeared from what looked like nowhere.

Humans.

They wore uniforms and armor Wrex had never seen before in all his thousand or so years of life; but their masks were what caught his attention. They were all of different designs, but they had one thing in common.

They were all skull themed.

They quickly dead checked all the mercs, before the leader turned his attention to them. "You the Battlemaster and Matriarch the slaves told us about?" He asked, his mask being the bottom half of a human skull.

"Who's asking?" Wrex replied, the both of them subtly priming their weapons in case these guys were hostile.

"Call me Nomad, we're responding to the call you put out a few days ago." He explained.

"Took you long enough, we were just about to try a solo rescue ourselves." Aethyta complained, watching their six's.

"Well we've been a little busy outside." A female retorted, her mask resembling something like a Varren's skull.

Nomad got straight to the point; "The slaves told us there's a second pen that the Suns plan to burn down; all y'all know where it is?" He asked.

"Yeah, we were heading there when these Pyjaks got the drop on us." Wrex said, eying the human up. He was small, but he gave off an unsettling aura; there was more than what met the eye with this human.

Nomad seemed to contemplate it before straightening his shoulders; "Ok then, Mr. Battlemaster if you would be so kind as to lead the way; we'll be happy to help." He said no hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Matriarch please stay in the back and cover our asses; Phil your with her, Archer take left, Colt stay right, I'll cover the Battlemaster. Got it?"

"Got it Boss." The humans replied.

"Alrighty then," He took a metal block and slammed it into the bottom of his rifle while hitting the side of it, a loud _clack_ resounding from the inside of the weapon; then he looked at Wrex and gave a nod. "Lead on Battlemaster."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, but I've said it before and I'll say it again; Collage is an utter bastard with your time. Auditing Calc II helped lighten the load, but I'm a little disheartened now that I have to take it again.**

**As for the story; the cracks in Nomad and the Ghosts previously established canon begin to show. Wrex and Aethyta being Bounty Hunting partners never happened in canon; at least as far as they know. If that's different, what else could possibly have changed? **

**Remember, by this point it's about two and a half years before the events of the first game took place; or at least that's what they believe. Stay tuned to find out. Next update will probably happen around Christmas, because my finals start next this Monday; and don't end until the 16****th****. **

**Please leave reviews and let me know what y'all think so far. You have no idea how encouraging reviews and PM's are you guys; they are what inspire me to keep going. Don't leave one if you don't want to, I'm not going to be a dick and try and wring it out of you like some of the old authors of the site used to do. **

**Also… I would really love a TV tropes page for this story. It would make a nice Christmas gift. I don't really get much these days since I've long since reached the age where I want gifts, now I'm at the point in life where I want practical stuff; like money, or hiking boots. **

**Oh! And Happy Pearl Harbor day. Thanks to the Japanese's idiocy on this day; the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire's days became numbered.**

**Right… Please leave reviews.**

**I'd like a TV Tropes page.**

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	7. Modern TSA Sucks (Blue Suns Too)

"Fuck these mercs!" Archer snapped, ducking behind a concrete pillar.

I brought my Beowulf up, making sure to use the underslung shotgun rather than my .50 cal. rounds; I rapid fired several shots, dropping two of the mercs while Aethyta Biotically snapped the neck of the third.

"Keep pushing forward! We're running out of time!" I shouted.

Phil growled and shouldered his LMG, hosing the trigger on the doorway in front of us to keep the mercs suppressed. "GO! GO! GO!" He bellowed.

Wrex and Colt sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them to the doorway; Colt loading a grenade into his underslung launcher as he did so. A glint of sunlight on the destroyed rooftop caught my eye, and I instinctively brought my rifle to bear and squeezed the trigger. I emptied half my mag into the sniper; the merc fell through the hole and down the 40 or so feet from the rooftop to the solid floor of the building.

_THUMP!BOOM!_

The explosion at the doorway recaptured my attention, revealing at least seven or eight dead mercs; leaving the doorway to the underground slave pens open. "Pens are open! GO!" I bellowed, vaulting over the crates I had been using for cover.

Wrex went first, charging like a freight train down the stairs; Phil and Colt not far behind him.

We ran down the stairs, making sure not to trip on anything on the way down. "Two tangos!" Colt called.

Two human mercs popped up from behind cover; bringing their guns to bear on us. I fired on the one on the right; at this range the .50 cal. punched through the shields like it wasn't even there. His head popped like a watermelon; Aethyta quickly took care of the one on the right, blowing a hole in his chest.

We took a right, and there were the slave pens; about 20 or 30 slaves trapped inside, and there was a fire brewing on the far end of the room. Three more mercs were tending the entrance; they didn't even have the chance to raise their weapons before we gunned them down. "Fuck, their burning the evidence!" Phil exclaimed on seeing the fire in the back.

"And the slaves." Archer pointed out nervously.

I looked at Wrex, "Battlemaster if you'd be so kind."

Wrex huffed, then forced the doors open with his Biotics; not quite what I had in mind but it worked. "ALRIGHT! Let's go! MOVE!" I shouted into the room. There wasn't a need for me to tell them; as a group, they rushed out the entrance, the less malnourished ones carrying the children or those too weak to move.

"Phil, Archer go out with them, cover their retreat!" I ordered.

"Yes sir!" The both took off, forcing their way through the seething mass of slaves. I gave a quick sweep of the room, making sure that there weren't any slaves that had been left behind; which thankfully proved to be unnecessary.

I gave a sigh, "Sergeant sitrep."

"All done up here Captain, the Sun's fought to the end; shuttles are secure and the slaves are being led out into the yard. Pickup will be here within the hour." He replied, his voice buzzing with excitement.

I couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the clichéd word that left my mouth, but I couldn't help but say them; "Mission Completed team, great work."

* * *

Wrex tossed another Asari Merc into the pile of dead bodies; a shame he couldn't eat them, but the Quarians needed the evidence to prove what had occurred here. Plus, they still needed to find their clients daughter; and she hadn't been found amongst the slaves that were alive.

He wished that lazy ass Nomad would help with piling the bodies; but he had disappeared to go, "Grab a gift" in his words.

Those humans had done well; he had to give them that. Not as good as him or 'thyta, but they could improve; they had the potential, they just needed the experience. They had been a big help in saving the slaves at the very least; they helped clear out those entrenched mercs in that warehouse at least. He and 'thyta could have cleared them out; but it would have taken time, which would have spelled death for the slaves.

"Thinking about those humans?" Aethyta asked beside him.

"Just all the mistakes they made." He replied.

She gave him a sideways look, "They weren't half bad you know; they were on par with the Quarians, and you know by experience how good they are."

"Hmmm…" He grunted.

"Oi! Battlemaster!" One of the humans called. Wrex lazily turned and looked; it was the big one with the LMG and the Quarian sounding accent. "Nomad wanted me to tell you that he's got a gift for you. He'll be here in a minute." He said.

Wrex tilted his head in acknowledgement; and the human went to talk with the Quarian commander.

"Aw that's sweet, a gift. What's next, is he gonna ask us out on a date?" 'thyta said mockingly.

"Neither, quite frankly all y'all are both a little old for me. Plus, I'm pretty firmly in the heterosexual category of sexual preference, thank you very much." Nomad said from behind them. They turned and saw the human approaching with the lone female of his team. Between them was an Asari maiden in battered Blue Sun armor; her hand was bandaged, there was a nasty bruise on the side of her temple, and her left shoulder was dislocated.

"Who's she?" Wrex asked, now somewhat interested.

"You're gift." Nomad replied, shoving the Asari forward. "Y'all told me that you couldn't find your clients daughter, and I said I'd look for her remember?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Aethyta asked, eying the Asari up.

He raised his arm and gestured at the restrained merc; none of his team had removed their bandanas, but Wrex could tell he was smirking behind it. "If I recall correctly, you're targets name was Nyxor T'haus right?"

The female shoved the Asari forward with her shotgun.

Aethyta grabbed her; and nodded towards Wrex, confirming that it was indeed who they were looking for. "My thanks." He said.

Nomad shrugged, "Least we could do for your help; Ah Colt, Sergeant, how was the data extraction?" He asked, turning his attention to the Quarian commander and the last human of his group as they approached.

"A gold mine boss, we got proof the Blue Suns have been hired by the Hegemony to guard their slaves." Colt replied.

That got Wrex's attention. "You're sure about this, you're not screwing with us are you?" he demanded.

Sergeant Reegar shook his head grimly; "No, transactions and messages are all there; Batarians hired them."

"Блядь, why would they do that? The Blue Suns may be Mercenaries but they still have standards as to who they would work with. What's changed that I wonder?" The big human asked, walking up to them.

"Dunno, but it can't be good; whatever the reason may be." Nomad grumped.

The loud hum of an approaching dropship caught their attention; several dropships in fact.

"Sergeant are those your guys?" Nomad asked.

"Maybe, but command told me three; not seven craft." Reegar said, sounding slightly nervous.

They watched as the seven dropships got close enough for them to make out their colors. Three bore Quarian colors, one was unmarked, and the last three…

"Alliance?" Aethyta asked turning to Nomad; "You didn't say more of your comrades were showing up."

"That's because there weren't any." Nomad replied, unslinging his rifle.

The unmarked dropship touched down in the middle of the yard; and the hatch on the side of it opened. A human stepped out, wearing the white, grey, and black camo uniform the other four humans were wearing; but no armor, helmet, or bandana. He wore an Olive colored beret on his head, and it had a symbol of human skull with writing on it that Wrex couldn't make out from this distance.

There were three Alliance Marines with him, wearing the far more familiar N7 armor.

"Schultz? What the hell's he doing here?" Colt asked.

"And why's he with a bunch of swabbies?" The female remarked.

Nomad was unreadable behind his skull bandana; but Wrex could tell he was sizing the marines up, even as the other dropships landed. "I don't know…" he finally said, "But I smell blood." He gave Colt a stern look, "Hold onto that data and keep your ears open." He ordered before walking to the dropship.

* * *

_What the fuck have you done Schultz?_ I thought to myself as I walked towards him. I saw the beret and everything, and most importantly I saw the silver oak leaves on his lapels. _Oh shit…did he go and… yeah of course he would._

"Colonel, what are you doing out here sir?" I shouted over the roar of the dropships engines, not quite able to keep the suspicion from my voice.

"Orders from General Grant, we're turning this op over to the N7's and Admiral Hackett." He replied, and his tone told me not to ask the obvious questions; like who the fuck was General Grant and why was he a Lt. Colonel now?

Instead I went with the safer option; "What about our deal with the Quarians?"

"You'll get your eezo captain; but we get the intel and the credit." The N7 on Schultz's left answered, his voice sounded very familiar but I couldn't exactly place it.

I glanced at the N7, then back at Schultz. He shrugged; "You know how it is Nomad, we do the work and others get the credit."

"_What's the deal Nomad?"_ Archer asked over the radio. I turned back to look at them, seeing my team, Sergeant Reegar, Wrex, and Aethyta all watching us; weapons not quite pointing at us. "Wait one." I ordered before looking at the N7 that had spoken before and seemed to be the one in charge.

"We get a copy of the intel, and we'll share anything we find with each other." I said.

"Deal." He replied, reaching his hand forward.

"A pleasure working with you…" I trailed off, not knowing his name.

"Alliance Navy Captain Anderson, and the pleasures all mine Nomad." Anderson said, confirming my suspicions.

Thank God I still had my CrossCOMM sunglasses and bandana on; because he wasn't able to see my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline and my jaw drop. As it was, we shook hands and Anderson and his two N7's walked out to the Quarian and Alliance Marines that were disembarking into the complex.

"_Boss?"_

I shook myself; "Colt, Reegar, you made copies correct?"

"_Of course sir, I'm insulted that you think otherwise sir." _Colt replied in fake indignation.

"Right, give one copy to the N7's and mount up; we're leaving with the Colonel. Battlemaster, I know you can hear me so I'll say this; it was a pleasure working with you two." I said.

Wrex and Aethyta looked up at me while Colt reluctantly gave the spare copy to one of the N7's; Wrex gave a curt nod before picking up Nyxor and throwing her over his shoulder, walking away to presumably leave the planet on a ship they had likely stashed away before infiltrating the base; Aethyta gave me a kind wave before joining Wrex.

I turned to Schultz, and said; "This is going to be a very unpleasant ride back to the ship for you, I hope y'all know that."

He just gave me the biggest shit eating grin I had ever seen and said; "oh I know it."

* * *

"August, I would like you to meet Brigadier General Hyrum Grant; the new Commanding Officer of the Systems Alliance Army Group for Specialized Tactics." Schultz said, waving to the hologram of the man who had apparently been our high ranking source in the Alliance.

Remembering protocol, I saluted the man; he wore the Pinks and Greens uniform, and the Silver Star on each shoulder board told us exactly who he was. He returned my salute with a light smile.

"At ease, I'm not one for formalities; especially amongst SF." He said gruffly.

He was in his late-forties or mid-fifties, hints of grey hair peeking through from under his crush cap; a thick caterpillar moustache on his lip, a long scar from just under his right ear all the way down to his chin marred his face, and he had rows of medals and ribbons adorning his chest. He crossed his arms and sized each of us up with a critical eye.

We had taken our armor off and stored our weapons in our lockers after taking care to clean and disassemble our weapons to make sure they were all still good and had nothing wrong with them.

So he could see all our faces.

I looked at Schultz; understanding my silent question he said, "Yeah he's a Traveler like us, and he's been here awhile."

"Ten years as a matter of fact." The General interjected. Schultz nodded, and said; "He's been my source in the Alliance ever since I got here. You weren't the first one here Nomad, not by a longshot."

"I think I've been here the longest, but most of that was spent building connections and the like; trying to steer Humanity towards stopping the Reapers." The General explained, "I've been here at least fifteen to twenty years, though i've stopped bothering to count; I was U.S. Army Delta Force before I arrived here. Being an SF operator in one of my favorite games from training I did the only thing I could do; build myself up."

He gave me an appraising look then, almost appreciative; "For a long time, I was alone here; and I was certain of that because I looked everywhere for anyone else I could find. Then about three years ago, Schultz here popped up on my radar."

Schultz sat down in a nearby chair and leaned back, taking a nearby cigar and started smoking it; "We knew each other from a counter-terror op in Germany back in our universe. I was being evaluated for GSG-9 and they brought me on to give me some experience, and try and see how I handled things." He explained.

"Yes well… after we got in touch, we both figured that there were others out there like us; so we both began quietly hunting for anyone we could find." He nodded at me, "Schultz told me about Ms. Cira'Shodal; and how you started forming a real team of soldiers out on Omega Mr. Lee. I admit, it never occurred to us that there were other Travelers that arrived as different species. My thanks for that, because now we have a real intelligence network that would make Alliance intel green with envy."

I accepted the praise with a light nod and smile; these two had already been trying to form an army by the time I showed up. But it looks like they hadn't thought of everything.

"So we're an official organization in the Alliance now; how does that work?" Archer asked.

"We're Black; don't exist except as rumors and speculation. Any work of ours is given credit to N7's and Spectres." Grant explained as he scratched his chin. "I convinced the Prime Minister, with whom I made a good friendship before he was elected, that the N7's were too public; we needed a counter to the Spectres, a way to wage proxy wars. Any funding we get is registered under different agencies or gathered on our own."

"What we get paid now?" Phil asked, looking excited.

Everyone chuckled a little, "Yes, of course you do; hazard pay, rank, and everything."

Phil pumped his fist, _"Yes!"_ he whisper-shouted.

"So all our ranks are official now rather than made up?" Archer asked curiosly.

"That's right, Mr. John Weaver is now a Staff Sergeant; Ms. Ayashe Kingfisher is now a Sergeant, and Mr. Voronov Filippovich is a Sergeant First Class. Mr. Lee you are still a Captain; wait a few years and do a good job, I'll see to it you get squeezed in as a major by the time the games start."

"What about alien Travelers?" I asked, not really caring about my rank; well… maybe about my new pay. I had practically drained most of the money I had gotten from Tavia trying to fund everyone; now I didn't have to sell my appendix or anything.

Grant paused visibly to think for a few seconds; "Best we can do is give them an equivalent amount of pay and benefits an Alliance Intelligence Case Officer might receive. They won't have ranks or anything like that if that's what you're wondering."

I nodded, accepting the answer; best I could hope for really.

"The Quarians follow through on their end of the bargain? Cause this whole mission felt kind of pointless otherwise." Colt asked.

"Yes," Schultz answered when Grant didn't, "I answered for you; Admiral 'Raan and 'Koris were very pleased with how things turned out, and hopes that further ops between our troops will continue to happen."

I gave a wide smile and then lost it immediately after the Generals next sentence.

"I do have some bad news though Captain Lee; as a side effect of us going legitimate, the Prime Minister needs us to testify before a closed door session of Parliament that the GST is in fact a worthy investment. You, I, and Schultz will be the ones that will answer their questions; that's why that data Staff Sargent Weaver is holding is important. Captain Anderson and Admiral Hackett will be there as well to verify the data, since we gave them a direct copy."

I sat there for a few minutes, and then said the first words that came to my mind as I realized I would be sitting in the lion's den with a bunch of politicians who would know next to nothing about the military; "Are you fucking kidding me?"

* * *

They were not fucking kidding as it turned out.

All four of us were sitting around in the hanger bay in our Pinks and Greens as our stealth corvette, the _Independence,_ headed towards Arcturus Station. We were only an hour away by this point, and it was not helping my nerves on bit.

I had shaved my beard down to a mustache; which was still pretty thick, and probably out of regulations, but I didn't really care. I made sure all my ribbons and medals were in place and orderly, my Service Cap all straight and wrinkle free; and I made extra sure my shoulder holster holding my Hi-Power Browning was still hidden.

Fifteen rounds of 9mm may not seem like much; but I'd much rather have an emergency backup that required me to empty most of my mag to kill something, than have no gun at all and go hand to hand with someone that had a gun.

"It's my first time at Arcturus June, so we'll get to see everything together." I said, trying to hide my unease as I bounced June on my leg. She was three now, normally still too young for a suit; I had gotten one her size from the Quarians, something a little extra thrown in by Admiral 'Raan who agreed to keep her a secret from the rest of the board.

"Calm down boss, it's just a bunch of suits that are gonna be askin ya questions; they ain't gonna shoot ya for answering them wrong." Colt said, noticing my leg bouncing up and down.

I just shrugged while June yawned; lulled slightly by my leg bouncing her.

"Aya, can you look after her while I'm stuck in with those politicians?" I asked.

Archer grinned while crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. "Sure why not;" Then she got serious, "You know we need to find a more permanent solution to this you know, we can't keep bringing her around the galaxy. In our line of work, that's less than safe to say the least." She told me sternly.

I winced, "I'm still working that out honestly, hopefully I can figure something out." I replied as Schultz walked into the bay.

We all stood and saluted; well… I stood and brought myself to attention as best I could while holding June. He gave an impatient wave of his arm, "As you were." He grumped. I sat back down and went back to bouncing my leg, while June lulled her head slightly and leaned against my shoulder tiredly.

Schultz sighed when he saw this and said; "We'll be fine August, most of the Questions will be directed at me and General Grant; you'll be there just to verify things and make sure papers are in order."

"It's not the Senators I'm worried about; it's our other guests that concern me." I replied, keeping it vague enough so that June wouldn't pick up on it. Most people forget, but kids hear everything; especially stuff you don't want them to hear.

Schultz blinked, then said; "Ah, yes… them; they shouldn't ask too much, and again, most of the questions will be directed at me and the General. We'll be fine." He reassured me.

* * *

"_Welcome to Arcturus Station, Capitol of the Systems Alliance; please enjoy your stay." _The synthesized voice said overhead as we exited the _Independence_ and onto the docking bay. I had to constantly remind myself that this was friendly territory now, not hostile. I belonged here like all humans and alien citizens.

I held June tightly as we walked, and she didn't complain; looking slightly overwhelmed. We did turn a few heads, partly due to our uniforms; but mostly because of June. Most everyone here were humans, and few had ever seen Quarians before, much less a child.

"Feels like we're on parade." I whispered to Colt as we walked, recalling my experiences in ROTC.

"Screw that, it feels like we're late for inspection." He whispered back as more people stared at us.

"Grant and I really need to bring up giving the Army our Pinks and Greens as the standard issue dress uniform so we draw less attention." I heard Schultz grumble in front of me.

"Yes that would help with the stares from civilians; but it sure as hell won't help with the glares from the marines." Archer chipped in under her breath; bringing my attention to a group of five or six Marines in their dress blues giving us nasty glares.

It was easy to forget, but the Army was still pretty unpopular in the military; being seen as a waste of money and resources, and filled with wanna be soldiers that surrendered at the first sight of trouble. General Williams may have been a Marine; but many historians chose to "forget" that little tidbit in favor of saying that had Marines been garrisoned a Shanxi rather than Soldiers, he wouldn't have been forced to surrender.

"Walk faster, and avoid eye contact; that's how you avoided fights with rival gangs when you were alone." Phil advised, still whispering. None of us questioned him, and started speed walking to the Office of the Oversight Committee.

"'m hungry." June mumbled, prompting me to chuckle slightly.

"Auntie Aya and Uncle John can take you to get some lunch while I'm working okay?"

"'mkay, I'm tired too." She replied.

"You won't be soon." I promised.

* * *

"Like the Senate would see you Army Grunts; what's your real reason for being here?" The Navy Commander in charge of the security checkpoint sneered. He was equal rank to Schultz, meaning that Schultz couldn't lose his temper with the man for demeaning us; but I could see the big German was losing his patience with the arrogant Frenchman in front of him.

"_Kommandeur;_" Schultz growled, "I have given you the papers authorizing my passage and the passage of Captain Lee through this checkpoint; they were signed by General Grant, now please let us through."

"I have never heard of this General Grant; these papers mean nothing to me, I can do nothing with them. Go away before I call security for obstructing traffic." The man snapped, tossing our papers back at us.

I was so glad the others had taken June to the food court while we went to see the Committee, because I think she would have been traumatized seeing Schultz so angry. "Listen here you cheese eating surrender monkey;" Schultz hissed, catching the man's attention and severely pissing him off, "Either you let us through now, and we forget this whole thing happened..." He started, the volume of his voice increasing with every word; I saw out of the corner of my eye that everyone's attention was being drawn towards us, both Alien and human; Military and Civilian.

I saw a few humans opening their omnitools and start filming, big shit eating grins on their faces; Asari looking alarmed, Marines and Navy men and women scowling at one of their own being yelled at by a grunt, Turians looking annoyed at the lack of discipline; and human civilians clearly enjoying the show.

_Do you really have to do this with an audience of over a hundred people, a quarter of whom are Aliens. _I asked mentally, grimacing the whole time while standing at Parade Rest. I turned my attention back to the argument; mentally preparing myself to restrain Schultz from killing the guy.

"-or else I will be forced to get on that radio and call my friend General Grant and Admiral Hackett. And I will get THEM to let us through, and assign you to some barren moon for the rest of your career!" He bellowed, the vein in his forehead throbbing visibly.

The man scoffed at us and rolled his eyes; "Next!" he called.

I could see Schultz tense, and I debated to myself if I should stop him for a moment; _Oh dear God he's going to kill him. Do I want to stop him? It would be entertaining, but it would probably cause an international incident; and land us in pretty hot water. Damn it, I have to stop him; he might start World War Three electric boogaloo if I don't._

"Colonel… now might not be the best time to try and reenact World War Two, sir." I pointed out.

Schultz took a breath, seemingly getting a grip on himself; then very calmly walked up to the Commander, and grabbed the radio right in front of him.

"What are you doing? Get away or I will call security!" He exclaimed.

Schultz held up a finger and glared at the man, ignoring all the looks he was getting from our spectators; "Yeah… Hello? Hyrum? Ya, it's Karl; we have a problem at the checkpoint, could you please come down and clear things up please? Oh and bring Admiral Hackett as well sir. Thank you sir."

The Commander was red faced and practically spitting with rage; "You filthy pigs! I ought to throw you in prison right now!" He blustered.

Schultz said nothing but crossed his arms looking slightly smug now; while I looked down in slight embarrassment at being associated at all with this giant clusterfuck. I looked up; and sure enough, through the doorway came General Grant and Admiral Hackett.

"ATTENTION ON DECK!" I bellowed; every human military man snapped to attention, while the Aliens and Civilians looked startled. I could still make out a few brave souls hadn't stopped recording the whole event. Hopefully this wouldn't get posted all over social media.

_Who am I kidding; with Hackett here it'll be on all the MSM stations by dinner._

"Carry on!" Hackett called, before walking up to the station where the Commander was now standing. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked.

"Well… Sir… I…" The Commander stammered before Hackett cut him off.

"No, don't talk; you are relieved of duty as of right now. If I were you, I would go pack your bags; you are almost certainly being transferred after this."

"But sir I was just doing my job!" the commander protested weakly.

"Did these men have authorization to pass?" Hackett demanded.

"Well-"

"Did they?"

"They had these papers signed by a General Grant sir; but they're Army sir, they have no say here!" He exclaimed, finding some of his backbone.

"Are you saying that you were disobeying my orders and nullifying my Authorization Commander? I wasn't aware an O-5 could override the commands of an O-7; or is that how things work in the navy?" Grant asked, giving him a cold look. Like Hackett, he was grizzled and had a harshness to him that spoke to him being a combat veteran; his scar on his jaw probably helped matters.

The Commander paled and gulped nervously, "Er-"

"Not Commander, its Lieutenant Senior Grade now. Marine!" Hackett called.

A Marine Sergeant in dress blues and holding a rifle walked up. "Sirs?" He asked, having watched the whole exchange; he was probably one of the official guards on duty at the moment.

"Please take the Lieutenant to his Quarters and make sure he's packed up. He'll receive his new posting in the morning." Hackett said simply.

"Of course sir!" The marine walked into the booth and dragged the Lieutenant away; the man looking like he was about to vomit. Hackett looked at the booth, then sighed; "Lt. Commander Boeing." He called.

A young woman from one of the other stations rushed up; looking slightly pale. "Sir?"

"Please check these gentlemen in and give them the proper badges." He ordered calmly.

"Right away sir."

Grant looked at the crowd, many of them looked a little stunned; while some of the Marines and Sailors looked outraged at how one of their own had been thrown out in favor of two Army Grunts. "Well? Don't y'all have stuff you need to be doing?" He shouted.

That jostled them into slowly going back to their regular business, the few that had been recording the event slinked away to probably sell the footage to the nearest news station they could find.

It took no more than a few seconds for the woman to process us; she handed us our security badges with an apologetic smile, "For what it's worth sirs, I think he was completely in the wrong in what he was doing; Please don't let this incident ruin your stay here." She said.

Schultz gave a curt nod and grabbed his badge and walked away with Admiral Hackett and General Grant; I grabbed mine, and smiled at the woman, "Thank you very much ma'am, and have a good day." Before rushing off to catch up with the other officers.

* * *

**A/N: Got this one done fast didn't I? So the segment where Schultz was arguing with the Frenchman manning the checkpoint was very heavily based on an experience my old man had coming back from Afghanistan after his… 3****rd**** deployment? **

**He was over there in Iraq and Afghanistan 14 times so I've lost track of when some of these stories take place. **

**He and his team were coming back home and they had to stop in Paris. Well… let's just say my dad doesn't like French Customs for a reason. At one point he actually had to stop one of his teammates from jumping across the counter and killing the guy manning it; and before you say anything, the guy was a total dick. **

**They gave him tickets, paid for and authorized by the US Navy and DOD; the guy took one look and said; "I'm sorry but I cannot do anything with these, go away and leave me alone." In a disdainful voice, threw the papers and tickets across the desk and onto the floor; leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette, and opened a newspaper.**

**My dad literally stood there as one of his subordinates turned red and clenched his fists, and he told me "I stood there and thought, **_**Oh my God, Bud is gonna kill this guy. I can see his veins throbbing; do I stop him? It'll cause an international incident, so I'll have to stop him. Dammit.**_**"**

**Next chapter will have a little surprise waiting for you; and frankly I'm excited for it. **

**Hope you guys liked this chapter. **

**Please leave a review guys, it keeps me going.**

**I would love a TV Tropes page someday.**

**Anyone who would like to pitch story ideas feel free.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	8. Unexpected Lunchtime Guests

"Captain Lee, Please give your take on the reasons behind Project Rainbow, as you were one of the creators of the idea and you were on the ground during its creation." Oversight Sub-Committee Chairman Senator Dorothea Pyles (Isolationist) asked me, glaring down at me from her Podium.

She really hated the idea of the GST; because she saw it as forcing the System Alliance into the affairs of Aliens.

Everyone's eyes turned to me as I shuffled the stack of notes in front of me. I adjusted the mic in front of me, and then looked her right in the eyes. "To refresh the committee's memory, I will provide context behind the Project.

The Group for Specialized Tactics is the Army's response to the Navy and Marine Corps N7 program. As the GST is black in regards to clearance and documentation; we could not recruit our Officers and troopers through conventional means.

Myself, General Grant, and Lt. Colonel Schultz were the only active duty members of the Alliance Army when the Prime Minister authorized Project Rainbow; and with the exception of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant as those in the terminus like to call him, we were low profile members at that. To protect our families and prevent infiltration by the terrorist group known as Cerberus; and to prevent infiltration by the Salarian Special Task Group, all of our records were either purged from the databases or classified to all except the highest ranking members of the Alliance.

There are two groups; Fireteams and Case Officers.

For the fireteams, all members are humans that have been recruited from outside the Alliance Military; and had preexisting combat records, either retired military or otherwise. All have been put through a rigorous training regimen; with focuses on espionage, infiltration, and sabotage. While our fireteams can act as frontline fighters in an emergency, and each trooper is expected to perform as a one person Army; our main preference is stealth.

The N7's are loud, flashy, destructive, and above all else; Public.

The Ghosts, the unofficial term we have used to designate fireteam members, do not exist; our job is to destroy any enemy or group that poses a threat to humanity before they can ever know we were there."

I paused to take a sip of water from the glass in front of me while the senators shifted uncomfortable in their chairs. I could feel Chairwoman Pyles boring holes in my skull; to be fair, I had leveled a very serious criticism at the group she had put an enormous amount of stock into. I wouldn't want to hear the defects about my Ghosts either.

"Before you continue Captain, I would like to pose a question to Captain Anderson." She said coolly.

I gave a nod and turned my attention over to the good Captain.

"Captain Anderson, you have just heard what Captain Lee has just said correct?" She asked.

"I have."

"And what are your thoughts?"

Anderson thought it over for a minute, being an N7 himself he probably was processing all the criticism I had laid at his parent programs feet. Then he looked up at the Chairwoman and said; "Everything Captain Lee has just said is correct Chairwoman."

I blinked in surprise, while Pyles stammered for a moment; "I… Explain Captain."

Anderson swallowed and winced, probably because he had known what he was about to say for a long time, but didn't want to admit it. "Everyone knows the N7's and the N program by extension ma'am. Granted, until Shanxi they were mostly an open secret; similar to the American Delta Force during the 21st century, which we modeled ourselves after.

After Shanxi, many in the military needed a morale booster; and most had seen the capabilities of the N7's during the defense and the recapture of Shanxi, so it was decided the N7's be made public. While this has some benefits of course, there are also a great deal many hindrances.

Chief among them is our ability to carry out Black Operations.

There are only 1,530 N7's on active duty; and approximately 130 in training this year. Even taking thirty of them out for a Black Operation catches people attention, the Special Forces community is small, not everyone may know each other or meet each other; but everyone has at least heard of each other.

The GST has operated for the past eight months in the Terminus system with only vague allusions to them that would be dismissed as hearsay at best, and seen as delusion at worst. Quite frankly, we need a group to operate in the shadows; only the Salarians have the guts to do so, and they oftentimes will not engage if they believe the risk too great.

I support the GST Chairwoman."

"Which brings us to our second point Chairwoman;" General Grant said, giving Anderson a pleased look. "Beyond funding, intelligence, and the Prime Minister giving us missions; we are not associated with the Alliance in any way. Think of us as Human Spectres; we get captured, the GST, or Ghost Recon, or the Ghosts, or however you call us, is only a vigilante group that takes revenge against those that do harm in the Galaxy, nothing more."

I gave the General a sideways look; I just hoped the committee actually bought into this. Otherwise, I was going to kill Schultz for screwing us over like this.

* * *

"Dis is awesome! Tanks auntie!" June exclaimed from her chair, tasting the nutrient paste.

"Mouth closed while eating, little devil." Aya replied with a wide smile, pointing at June and wagging her figure.

"sowwy." June mumbled.

Aya laughed in response, she could practically see the kid pouting behind her mask.

"Alrighty, I got a bunch of Five Guys burgers and fries for all y'all. Let's see…" John said, plopping a tray down in front of his seat; digging through the bag for the food. "Triple decker cheese, with mayo, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickles, grilled onions, and tomatoes."

"Mine!" Phil exclaimed, yanking the foil wrapped burger from Johns hand; practically ripping the foil apart and tearing into the burger as fast as he could without staining his Pinks and Greens.

John rolled his eyes, pulling out a second burger; "Single cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, and A1 sauce?"

Aya held her hand out, "That would be mine, thank you John." Taking the burger and calmly unwrapping it; savoring the smell of the earthborn cattle meat cooked to well done perfection.

"Uncle Philly talk with mouth open." June pointed out unhappily.

Aya grinned, "Well that's because Uncle Phil is a man; and above all else, he's Russian. He's an uncultured barbarian barely contained by human decency." She said.

Phil gave her a sour look, and probably would have flipped her the bird if June wasn't present.

John rolled his eyes, "And a single cheese, with all of Phil's stuff on it and Cajun spice for me." He set his down and brought out the fries. Like the Five Guys of the 21st century, these guys had loaded it to the brim with French fries.

All of them started eating, savoring the good taste of real Earth cow meat; and Earth grown potato French fries.

"Wonder how the meeting is going for the boss; they've been in there for at least three hours now." John wondered, taking a bite of his burger.

"Probably whipping the senators into a blind fury." Phil replied, having slowed down somewhat in his eating.

"Yeah, he never was the most diplomatic; probably because he's a robot." John agreed.

Aya rolled her eyes; "Please, he has a far better methods in dealing with politicians than making them mad." She said, careful to avoid swearing In front of June; since she was at the age where she began absorbing every word she heard like a sponge.

"And what is that?" Phil asked.

"He shoots them." John replied, prompting a round of laughs from the group.

Aya looked around the mess hall, both out of curiosity and habit; truthfully it was more like a mall dining area times ten in size, than a mess area. About half were human civilians, a quarter was human military, all of which were Marines or Sailors; and about a Quarter were alien.

Every few minutes, some Marine or Sailor would throw them a dirty look; or would throw distrusting glares at little June, who just sat there and chatted aimlessly with them. But it was a Human Woman-Turian couple that caught her attention; they kept giving them odd looks, and whispering to each other.

She kept her eye on them through her periphery vision; all three of them had taken a Hi-Power Browning and put them in their shoulder holsters, carefully hidden under their dress jackets. But this was the last place to get into a gunfight if shit went south.

Then the couple stood up, holding their trays; and started walking towards them.

"Guys, heads up; couple heading for us, four o'clock." She said.

They kept talking, but the conversation became more animated; they used their peripherals to keep an eye on the couple approaching them, slowly setting their food down in anticipation of needing to draw their guns. Aya sized them up; the Turian had blue facial markings, and civilian clothing that was differing shades of navy blue to teal.

The woman was pale skinned, dark red hair in a sloppy ponytail, and a white blouse with jeans; but her bright green eyes, that was what really caught Aya's attention. The others saw it too, "It can't be." Phil whispered.

June kept chattering away none the wiser.

The woman reached them first, and looked them over; clearly taking note that they had stopped eating, the Turian beside her doing the same. "Can we help y'all?" John asked cautiously.

"Would you mind if we joined you?" The woman asked pleasantly, completely carefree and acting like she hadn't noticed the tension at all.

Aya blinked and looked at the others; John and Phil looked at each other, and shrugged. June looked ecstatic at getting to meet new people. "Hi! You look like auntie Tavi!" She exclaimed, pointing at the Turian.

The Turian looked startled while the woman burst out laughing.

"Imagine that honey, you look like a girl to this little one; I told you blue isn't your color." She said, still laughing.

"Yes dear, just as how I keep telling you red isn't yours." The Turian replied sarcastically.

"Oh where are my manners, I'm Jane; and this is my… friend Garrus." Jane said.

_Friend… yeah, sure;_ Aya thought, quietly using her pad to send August a quick text from under the table. "That's Staff Sergeant John Weaver, I'm Sergeant Ayashe Kingfisher, and that's Sergeant First Class Voronov Filippovich." Aya paused for a moment, "We just call him Phil." She added.

Jane gave them a bright smile, while Garrus gave a nod of respect; "Awww, and who is this cute little thing." She practically squealed upon seeing June, who looked at her with wide eyes.

Aya smiled and picked the kid up and set her on her lap, grunting due to the kids recent growth spurt; "This little devil is June'Lee; were looking after her while her dad takes care of something while we eat."

"Speaking of eating, I sure hope that you guys remembered to get me something." August's voice said from behind her.

"Daddy!" June exclaimed, reaching around Aya's shoulder.

She turned to see him standing there with a lopsided grin on his face; Aya passed her over to her dad, the girl happily wrapping her hands around his neck. Jane and Garrus watched with smiles of their own; while John dug through the bag.

"Here boss, I got you the double burger, no cheese, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and Old Bay seasoning on it." He said, setting the foil wrapped burger in front of August's chair. He gave a happy grunt, and sat down; setting June in to the chair next to him.

He unwrapped his burger and smelled it with a massive smile, his handlebar moustache twitching as he did so. "Ahhh… Old Bay seasoning, haven't had some since I was last in Maryland; I missed it so much." Taking a massive bite.

He looked up and seemed to notice Jane and Garrus; and gave a nod, "Hello?"

Jane smiled and held out her hand, "Jane, my friend Garrus; are you this little things father?" She asked.

August smiled, and took it; "That's right, little devil runs me ragged let me tell ya; Captain August Benjamin Lee. Most people call me August." He gave her an appraising look, "You may try your best to hide it with civilian clothes and all that; but I can tell your military. So what branch?" He asked, pretending like he didn't already know.

Jane paled slightly but maintained her pleasant demeanor; "First Lieutenant Jane Shepard; Systems Alliance Navy."

* * *

"So these two Marines are hanging out in my neck of the woods." John was saying.

"Your neck of the woods?" Garrus asked, confused by the human expression.

John shrugged, "Area where I grew up; so anyway, I decided that I wanted some good ol' alligator boots made from real alligator skin. Now you two ain't Earthers like us so you may not be familiar with 'em; just picture a four legged Krogan. Real mean things, can crush metal like its butter; and their skin is tough enough to cause bullets to bounce off 'em. Real expensive if you can imagine."

"Yes, I imagine I'd have to empty my savings account to afford clothing made from one of these beasts." Garrus said seriously.

Jane chuckled as she listened to the story, she had indeed heard of Alligators when she had been growing up on the ships; but from what Staff Sergeant Weaver had described about them, they were quite deadly.

"Well me being me, I decided that these prices are bullsh-crap" He said, catching himself and throwing a glance at little June, who was listening attentively. "And I figure, well how hard can it be. I go to a buddy of mine who sells gator boots and I say; 'look, can you do this for a small charge if I bring you the gator?' he sat there and thought about it; and then said 'sure… but you gotta do me a favor.'" John shifted himself in his chair, a nostalgic and serious expression on his face.

"I go, 'What?' and he lays it out for me; 'Buddy, I had two Marines come in about a week ago with the same request, and I gave 'em directions to a good gator spot. It's a about a two day trek, so they should have been back by now; if you could do me a solid and see if their still out there, let 'em know they need to leave or else malaria or the mosquitoes are gonna get to 'em.'

I said I'd keep an eye out, and packed all my stuff up and headed out; now I don't let it show, but I'm a little freaked out by what he said. Some gators can get up to 15 feet and 500 pounds, easy. So I'm wondering as I'm hiking through the swamps, if these Marines got swallowed whole by some gators."

He took a drink of his whisky while August rolled his eyes; Garrus gave him a wide eyed look that Jane shared, "You seem unimpressed Captain." Garrus said cautiously.

August just laughed and shook his head while Phil and Aya gave each other amused looks; they clearly knew something that she and Garrus were missing.

"Hmph, compared to the Siberian Tigers I hunted when I was last on vacation, these things seem like infantile children in comparison." Phil grunted.

John gave a fake scowl, "Hey this is my story, stop stealin my thunder.

Anyway, I trek through the swamps; it's about a hundred percent humidity and about a hundred or so degrees Fahrenheit easy. All disgusting and warm swamp water, leeches, ticks, spiders the size of my hand; and just all miserable in general. Well I get to the gator hunting spot, and there is this huge pile of gators; five or six of them easily, but no sign of the Marines."

"Sounds like they didn't go down without a fight." Jane commented, not really sure where this was going.

John started laughing; "Well, I'm standin' there thinking the same thing, when all of sudden this gator bursts out of the water flailing around; biggest one yet, easily fifteen feet; at least four hundred pounds. I stumble back as fast as I can thinkin this thing was gonna eat me."

June was entranced, and Jane could tell the kids jaw was touching the bottom of her helmet. "What happened Uncle John?" She exclaimed, clearly excited.

"Well it stops lunging after me and it starts flopping around, snarling, snapping its jaws, slamming its tail on the ground; and on its back, are the two marines." He paused to take another sip of whiskey, and started laughing. "Well one of 'em finds the chink in its armor, and stabs it a few times and kills it. I'm just watchin' 'em when they flip it over on its back and look at its feet."

"Its feet?" Garrus asked, bewildered.

"Yeah its feet, and one of 'em goes, 'Damn it! This one ain't got any boots on it either!'"

There was a pause as everyone processed the punchline, then everyone except June burst out laughing as they got it.

Garrus was laughing the hardest, his head thrown back as he gave his odd chirping laugh. "Ah… a good story my friend; a shame we cannot stay for more." He said.

Jane looked at her omitool, and her eyes exploded; "Oh crap your right; Garrus we gotta go!" She exclaimed. How could she have forgotten the passage of time like that, and on this day of all days in particular? It had felt like only a few minutes, not two hours.

"Everything all right?" August asked, looking concerned.

"All fine, we're just running a little late to a family gathering is all. It was a genuine pleasure meeting you all; I really like your stories, I'll be sure to tell them to my men." Jane said hurriedly.

"And I'll be sure to tell that last one to my friends at CSEC; they love a good story. Especially hunting dangerous creatures like these Alligators you speak of." Garrus said.

They all smiled, and August gave a short laugh while June waved goodbye; "I can certainly say the feeling is mutual, have a good day." He said, while June said; "Bye Bye!"

Jane beamed brightly, and then she and Garrus took off; not quite running to her family apartment.

"They seemed nice," Garrus commented as they walked

"I felt like I had to be nice to them at first with all those mean looks they were getting from the Marines and Sailors. Silly old me forgetting that soldiers are people too." Jane huffed; remembering how badly many Army transferees were treated in boot camp, especially the N7 School.

It was something she never understood; but it was something she did her best to squash every time her men interacted with Army Soldiers. Still, she had enjoyed herself a lot; "Hope we can meet them again someday."

* * *

"General Sir this is just more evidence that canon is flying off the rails sir." I said to General Grant, everyone else seated around me nodding and voicing their agreement. Grant sighed and shook his head, grimacing as he took a drink from his beer can.

The team, Schultz, and I were aboard the _Independence;_ while General Grant was at his office on Arcturus. Dr. Heliix and Arc were also on the line aboard the _Spirit of Fire_; repairs going remarkable fast now that they had been getting some help from hired Quarian hands.

The Citadel station chief, the Batarian Traveler Obram Coksewar; was on the line as well, and Mira, the Omega station chief rounded out the call. For being together for a little more than half a year, the Ghosts had grown quite a lot in size.

Grant shook his head as he stood and brought out some papers; not digital documents, actual papers.

"I admit, I wasn't a diehard fan; never read the books or anything like that, or did total completion play-throughs. But even I could tell some things were off when I first came here." He admitted. "I started keeping notes of everything that was off to me, and it started revealing a grim trend. Mira, if you'd please give me your findings from Omega."

Mira sniffed, and pushed up her glasses; "It wasn't easy digging around with Aria looking over everyone's shoulder; but I did find some interesting things. I have a little more than a dozen people here, and all of them said the same thing; Batarians and the Blue suns are working together. In the games, they never even crossed paths; at least in no way any of us can remember. Aria's daughter is still alive, and Cerberus has yet to show their faces here; but I'm keeping my ears to the ground just in case."

Obram shifted slightly; his four eyes flaring sadly, "I did some digging of my own here, and it shows a similar trend. Garrus is still a corporeal in C-SEC, Udina has only been ambassador for a few years; and Pallin isn't Executor, an Asari I've never heard of is. But that isn't the biggest issue of all at the moment."

Heliix shifted slightly; "Benezia has yet to fall under Saren's and Sovereigns influence; but on the flip side, she's also more openly supportive of Liara and of the theory of the Reapers.

"Then of course, we have the Quarians openly sending their Spec Ops teams to work in cooperation with the Systems Alliance; given how open they were to working with me, and conducting other classified ops with N7's. In the games they were almost totally isolationist; here they play an active part in Counter terror ops." I chimed in. "And let's not forget Aethyta and Wrex being bounty hunting partners; whereas in the games Wrex was under the Shadow Broker's employment, and Aethyta had been working her bar for decades."

Schultz bowed his head sadly. "And lastly, a threat which never appeared in the games;" he tapped a few keys on his omnitool and looked at the screen. Mira, Arc, Heliix, Obram, and Grants windows shrunk while a symbol took their place; that of the all seeing eye of the illuminati.

"Eayan Allah; the Eye of God. An Islamic terror group that believes mankind was never meant to leave Gods Earth, and that Aliens are the scum of the universe; they declared a jihad on all aliens after Shanxi, one that has continued to this day. Mainly against the Turians and the Batarians." Schultz said, rounding out the most obvious changes we could find.

Aya seemed to think for a second before saying; "There was one other thing; Shepard and Garrus know each other and are probably in a relationship."

"Oh…" Grant said, looking surprised by that particular bit of news.

I groaned and rubbed my head, feeling a headache coming on; I was glad I put June to bed because I was not gonna be able to handle the amount of info that was being downloaded into my brain.

"So what's our next move sir?" John asked from right next to me.

Grant rubbed his chin; "For the time being? Consolidate and solidify our current holdings before we attempt to expand them. I already have a big target on my back for foiling Cerberus multiple times on the border worlds near the Terminus systems.

Heliix has a target on her back by the Hardline Asari Matriarchs; Arc still has to finish refitting the _Spirit of Fire_, Obram and Mira will need to expand their networks to more than just Travelers, which will no doubt catch the eye of the STG.

August, you and Fireteam Kingslayer are the only ones with viable combat experience out of all the Ghost fireteams at the moment; and proper equipment now that I think about it, so we need to sort that out as well.

Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, Schultz and I need to convince the Prime Minister to push through that Alliance with the Quarians; and convince the Parliaments Defense Committee to authorize the building of those Orbital Defense Platforms you showed me, at least for major colonies and Earth.

So yeah… I think we got our work cut out for us."

He looked at all of us, and I unconsciously stood to attention; the others doing the same.

"Well then Ghosts, let's get to work."

* * *

**A/N: Little bit of a filler chapter, but an important one.**

**There will be a time skip after this chapter, as I've shown or at least mentioned all the major players and important factions in this story. In all honesty I was getting a little tired of the pregame stuff; because it consisted of August flailing around trying to do everything himself, while being a nerd, and mostly failing at it. **

**I'm excited to get into the games, because as you can tell; it's not going to follow canon very much. Some will stay the same, others will not; I eagerly wait to show you. Now then, I'm gonna go eat some sour apple pie.**

**Leave a review, tell me what y'all think.**

**I'd Love a TV Tropes page, as usual.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	9. Eayan Allah (The Eye of God)

**The Citadel, The Presidium; February 21****st**** 2183 CE/AD, 2032 hours**

It was nighttime on the Citadel as the car pulled into the parking space of the lot. The four men that sat inside shifted uncomfortably; then adjusted their jackets, making sure everything was in place.

The passenger pulled up an omnitool, and played the message that had sent them here to this den of inequity; out of a desire for one last bit of reassurance.

"_My Son's and my Brothers, I call upon you to fight this holy war against the Atheist Human infidels; Against the Four Eyed menace, the practitioners of slavery; Against the blue whores that sway our people away from Allah and his path. _

_Against the Jewish filth; and against the Christian traitors._

_You may fear death, and that fear is justified; all beings rightfully fear death, but Allah is merciful. And the acts against the infidels you commit will make you a martyr to our cause; and will absolve you of your sins. Go now my Brothers and Son's fight this holy war, wherever you can. For Allah, and for the freedom of Tajicstan._

_For we… are the Eye of God." _

The men looked at each other, and nodded as one; any doubts they had before had been wiped clean. If this was not for martyrdom, then it would be for the freedom of their planet. Freedom from the Atheist Bureaucrats of the Systems Alliance that refused to protect them; and freedom from the Batarian menace that now ruled their home with an iron grip.

As one they exited their truck and split up; walking through the crowds to their predetermined targets.

It was snowing on the Citadel; a sprinkler system of sort, which could simulate any weather condition. It was presumably set to whatever weather cycle its creators had on their home planet; it would snow, rain, sleet, or hail from time to time.

How ironic that it would snow on this day of tragedy.

The Passenger was the ringleader of this little operation, and the most intelligent out of all of them. But that wasn't saying much; he wasn't educated, very little combat training, and nothing left to lose.

His parents, his sisters, and his brothers were all dead, or worse, enslaved.

His father, mother, and brothers had all died one by one; fighting to remove the Batarians from Tajicstan. Since it wasn't an official colony of the Systems Alliance, and since it was located in the Skyllian Verge; the Batarians had for all intents and purposes, occupied it with an iron grip.

His sisters on the other hand; one by one, disappeared never to be seen again, or were found dead in an alleyway, oftentimes naked, blood and semen dripping from their womanhood.

He had been the baby of the family, and eventually it had been left to just himself and his eldest sister, who had tried her best to protect him; trading her body for the assurance that the two of them would never be bothered again. Then one day, he had come home; and walked in to find three Batarian soldiers gang raping her. One was holding her by her hair while feeling her breasts, the second shoving his manhood into her mouth, while the third was stuffing it into her womanhood.

His sister had not known this, but he had dug up an old AK-12 from the nation-state era; and he had hidden it under a table. He entered, and his sister noticed him; but the Batarians had not. She had implored him not to do it with her eyes, but he had only seen red in that moment. He squeezed the trigger and didn't release it, blowing the head off the one holding her hair; and ripping a hole in the chest of the one that had his cock in her mouth.

The one that had his dick in her womanhood pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin; just as he shot the four eyed rapist in the eye. His sister, who had raised him from the age of two to fourteen; removed herself from the Batarians manhood, and shoved him out of the door, screaming "I love you" as she did so.

Then the grenade went off. The ripping sound it made would never be erased from his mind

He found her afterwards, shrapnel and wood chips buried all in her naked body; but her face had been untouched. He had cried over her body for hours, until some of the neighbors dragged him away; silencing his screams to not draw the Batarians attention.

He lost himself for a long while after that; drinking, smoking, and fucking any woman that spread her legs, trying to find some form of solace in his many sexual relationships.

Then, one day he got one of the whores pregnant; she was fourteen, and he was fifteen. The sheer terror and joy they had felt could never be repeated. Joy that Allah had graced them with child so young; and terror, that the occupiers would kill all three of them, for they did not take kindly to unregistered families.

It was then, that the Imam came to him; promising to look after his new wife and unborn child, and offered him a place in his organization. He had taken the offer in a heartbeat; his wife and unborn child were moved off world, and he began his war of revenge.

For years he faithfully fought the four eyed menace; bearing many children with his wife as the years progressed, but then tragedy befell him once again. He was gravely wounded in a skirmish, and his usefulness as a soldier was gone which meant that the Imam was no longer obliged to protect his now very large family; his wife, and five sons and four daughters were in danger.

He went to the Imam personally, and begged him for some task he could do that would warrant their protection even after death; for he knew that his injuries were slowly killing him, and his usefulness would end soon.

Even then, he knew there was only one thing to do; become a martyr.

The Imam gave him his task, and the location; and he accepted. He was given a full meal, painkillers for his injuries, and one final night with his wife; whom he still saw as a beautiful angel, the years and constant childbirths and pregnancies had not dimmed her beauty at all.

The next morning, he left; saying goodbye to his many children, his wife, and if Allah permitted it, his tenth unborn child if their final night of constant lovemaking had indeed produced the desired result.

Now… here he stood in Presidium, a massive tourist trap for humans; along with other species as it turned out. _These pigs, these dogs; they stand here in luxury, and care nothing for the suffering of my people. _He snarled to himself.

The Jews and the Christians would do nothing; the Atheists of the Systems Alliance would do nothing, and the Allah damned Aliens would do nothing. Not unless they were shown true suffering.

It was cool, far colder than what he was used to; but now he drank in that chill, for it reminded him of the cool moonlit night where he and his wife, young and foolish, had met and conceived his eldest son. _Allah must have a sense of humor_ The Ringleader mused; _Tonight is the thirteenth year of my eldest son's conception, a shame that tonight must be one of death._

It was fascinating how he was on a giant space station, but it still had weather cycles like a normal planet. It was actually snowing, real snow; something the ringleader had only seen once before in his life. He took it as a sign that Allah had blessed him for this task.

The ringleader threw off his long coat; the crowd was so thick he could barely move his arms, but he managed it. Grumblings and shouts for him to watch what he was doing stopped, and immediately changed to screams of horror and terror.

The Ringleader felt a pang of regret for what he was about to do as he spied a child looking at him in confused fear; but he knew that Allah was merciful, and would grant that child life in heaven upon death.

"_ALLAH ACKBAR!" _He screamed as he pressed the detonator, closing his eyes and feeling the cool Citadel generated air. He felt a sudden flash of heat, hotter than any days in the deserts of Tajicstan; and he knew no more.

* * *

**Urzikstan, February 18****th****, 2183; 72 hours earlier**

I wormed my way through the harsh desert sand to the edge of the dune I found myself on. I hit a switch on the side of my helmet, switching my CrossCOMM glasses changed from night vision to thermals.

"_This 1-1, I'm in position." _A voice whispered into my ear.

I propped my rifle into position, my ACOG four times magnifier giving me a clear view of the compound below. The huge suppressor I had attached made it unwieldy, but I tolerated it; knowing that it was necessary to ensure we went undetected.

"_1-2 in position."_ A woman said next.

I did an idle check one my underslung Mass Effect powered shotgun. I would have need of it for when things went hot; and I had limited ammo for the assault rifle portion of my gun.

"_1-3, target in my sites." _A second woman reported, sounding almost impatient to get the ball rolling.

I gave a soft sigh, and made sure the safety on my rifle was off; then keyed my mic. "This is Ghost-Lead, in position and ready to fire; all units shoot in three…"

I took a breath.

"Two…" I fingered the trigger.

"One…" I released my breath and relaxed my muscles, and slowly drew the trigger back.

"Fire." I squeezed the trigger all the way back, taking care not to pull it too fast; or else I would slap the trigger guard and throw my aim off. I needn't have worried, as my rifle gave a soft _CRACK,_ and sent the .50 caliber Beowulf Armor Piercing round slamming into the terrorist that I had targeted.

The round tore through his armor, and ripped into his heart; killing the man instantly.

"Move up! Go!" I ordered, sliding down the dune I had taken up position on. We may have suppressed our guns, but it still could have alerted the terrorists inside; but it was still way quieter and stealthier than any Mass Effect based weaponry.

I reached the ramshackle mud, and chain-link wall; checking to make sure I hadn't been spotted, and then attached my rifle to the magnetic strips on my back. I vaulted over the wall, glad the mud and sand prevented too much noise from occurring. I flipped on my active camo unit, just in case; wouldn't due for theses fuckers to raise an alarm.

I drew my MP5SD from my back, and flipped the safety off; then I dropped to the ground, hearing voices very close to my position.

Two more insurgents came around the corner; chatting it up in Arabic, my mind automatically translating it.

"_The Imam has something big planned I hear."_

"_Yes, but no one knows what or where."_

"_Perhaps Arcturus station. Those communists should be taught a lesson in humility to Allah."_

I let the two of them pass by; then I shifted myself so that I was facing them while still prone. Then I fired two bursts to each of their chests. Both dropped dead to the ground.

"This is Ghost-Lead to Selene_-_Actual, any other hostiles in the compound, over?" I whispered into my mic, sweeping the tiny compound with my thermals.

"_This is Selene-Actual, negative Ghost-lead; all thermal's point to hostiles inside the main building, over." _The GST Prowler in orbit, the _Selene_, replied.

"Copy that Actual, out." I got up into a crouch, and moved quickly and quietly to the main building of the compound; a two story mud and clay house. "Lead to all, 1-1 with me; 1-2 and 1-3 clear the other two buildings." I ordered, reaching the steel door of the building.

1-1 quickly reached my position as I set up a breach charge. "I blow this, we need to move fast; got it?"

She nodded her head; "Got it."

I held up three fingers, then counted down; "Three, two, one, BREACH!"

_BOOM!_

The door flew off the hinges; flying inside the house with reckless abandon. I rushed in, not even waiting for the dust to clear. Two terrorists had been lying on the floor, both were incredibly disoriented from being woken up in a violent way. Two 9mm bullets in the head, and they moved no more.

"Clear left!" 1-1 called.

"Clear right! Move up to the next floor." I called back.

We moved with a purpose, climbing the stairs in the center of the house two or three steps at a time. We had made a very loud entrance, and could not afford to have these guys dig in; or worse, wipe the data we needed from their computers.

I reached the top floor, sweeping the leftmost room; while 1-1 took the right.

I heard the suppressed gunshots of her own MP5SD; but that info went to the back of my mind as I swept the room. I spotted one person, a man in a skintight black and indigo suit; tied up in a chair.

And to his left was another guy; his eyes were bulging out of his head as he dove to grab a gun. My aim snapped to his chest; pumping several bursts into his chest and head. He twitched once, and went limp.

I looked back over at the man who was tied up in the chair.

He was a Quarian, with a blue visor covering his face. I felt a little bad about it since it was a pretty big invasion of privacy; but I patted his chest, stomach, and legs down to check for an S-vest or a gun.

"Hey, watch where you touch; I'm saving my size for a good woman, I don't swing that way." The Quarian muttered tiredly, his mercury eyes dimmed with exhaustion. I gave a huff of amusement. "Buddy, my kid has already got one dad; they don't need another." I replied.

"Clear!" 1-1 shouted from the other room.

"Clear! Got a civilian prisoner in here; he doesn't look critically injured, but he could use some help." I called back.

"_Lead this is 1-2, all buildings are clear; and we hit the jackpot, found the computers and the data stores."_ The other Ghost informed me.

I rubbed my chin, my bandana and gloves stopping me from scratching it like I wanted to. "Alright Switch, keep Blade with you and gather all the shit up; we need to get out of here fast in case reinforcements are on their way." I ordered

"_Copy that Nomad."_ Switch replied.

I looked over at the Quarian, who was being cut free; and slowly shook my head.

I had been stuck on this hellhole of a desert planet for three weeks; hitting Eye of God bases left and right, and trying to find evidence of what they had planned next. And above all, trying to find the man known as "The Imam"; the leader of the Eye of God.

The guy was surprisingly elusive for a bomb throwing Theocratic Revolutionary; no one knew who he was, or what he even looked like.

"How is he Edge?" I asked, having checked the room for any useful intel and finding none.

"Several broken or bruised ribs; severe malnutrition and dehydration, and heavy exhaustion, he's in a bad way boss." She replied, her voice tinted with concern. I wordlessly took out a tube of nutrient paste along with a tube of purified water and handed them to him.

I always kept some on me in case June got hungry and needed a snack.

"Thank the Ancestors you came." The Quarian rasped, taking the tubes and quickly chugging down the water in seconds; before switching to the nutrient past. "I had lost all hope."

I shrugged, "Just doing our job; what's a Quarian doing all the way out here?" I asked.

He stopped chugging his paste and looked at me in horror; "Oh Ancestors! Tali! Where Is she!" He exclaimed, sounding desperate.

"Whoa calm down there; what's wrong?" I asked, the name Tali catching both of our attention instantly.

"Tali! She was with me when we started out pilgrimage. Some Geth attacked us, and she hacked one of their memory cores; it had a message from someone called Saren" He explained, stopping for a moment to eat some more paste to build up his energy.

"What did it say on it?" I asked, my alarm increasing with every second; _I knew canon was somewhat different here, but this is something else!_ I thought to myself.

"Saren and this guy called Balak; they're going to launch an attack on the Alliance. I don't know how or when; just that there is an attack coming. Then these humans caught me while we tried to smuggle ourselves on their ship to the Citadel. Tali didn't get caught with me; but since you didn't know about the message, I'm assuming she didn't make it to the citadel. Oh Ancestors… I let the Admirals daughter die." He rasped.

I cursed and activated my comm's unit, "All units mount up we're leaving. Selene-Actual this is Ghost-Lead; we need immediate pick up, got a Quarian prisoner that has vital information regarding National security." I barked.

"_Understood Ghost-Lead, shuttle is on its way; be advised enemy vehicles have been spotted by the shuttle approaching your location from the south." _The Prowler replied.

"Well that's great; all units we have enemy vehicles approaching from the south fast, head to the east from where we came from" I ordered, then I turned to the Quarian and pulled close to me; "You stay with me, things could get ugly real fast."

"Okay." He gasped.

I dragged him down the stairs and rushed outside, Edge close behind me. Already I could see the lights of approaching vehicles down the beaten road; at least six or seven of them were rushing down as fast as their drivers dared make them go.

I cursed and tried to run out the eastern gate; the lights of the place having been turned off during our infiltration. But the Quarian wasn't in good enough shape to start running; frankly it was a miracle he was standing. Edge pulled up alongside me, and wordlessly we picked the Quarian up in a two person seat; and started running as fast as we could through the sand and up the sand dune. Blade and Switch had already reached the top and had set themselves up to shoot down on the approaching vehicles in case they spotted us.

And spot us they did; we only made it halfway up the dune when I heard a voice scream in Arabic _"There! There are the infidels!"_

"Fuck me!" I snapped as they started shooting at us with their AK-84's. The zipping noises as the bullets whipped past us were unnerving to say the least. Switch had thankfully brought the big guns; and had set up her SAW on the top of the dune. The second the terrorists down at the compound started shooting; Switch started blasting them with her SAW. The big gun cut down several before the smart ones decided to take cover.

We made it three quarters of the way up before things went to shit.

"AH!" The Quarian screamed as an AK round ripped through him just below the ribcage.

I cursed as he started screaming in pain, the bullet wound clearly having done more damage that it initially appeared. Then I heard the distinctive _SWOOSH! _of an RPG being fired.

"DOWN!" Edge screamed.

We both dropped to the ground, taking the Quarian with us; and the RPG round went sailed up to the top of the sand dune. I watched in horror as the round detonated, sending Switch flying off the side of the dune. Blade had been smarter and thrown himself tumbling down before the blast and in a more controlled manner to prevent himself from getting caught in the blast; sparing him from more serious injury or death.

But now we had no cover.

Edge and I picked ourselves up, and I threw the Quarian over my shoulders in a fireman's carry; while Edge unlatched her rifle from her back, and started taking potshots at the terrorists below. "Blade report on Switches status!" I bellowed, fear digging into my heart as I realized that I hadn't heard her make any sound at all since the RPG round went off.

"She's hurt bad Nomad; I'm gonna have to carry her." He replied, a level headed coolness in his voice that certainly did not fit with the situation.

"Do so! Selene-Actual, I need a sitrep on our pickup!" I snapped as more AK rounds smacked into the sand around me.

"_One mike Ghost-Lead, just hang in there." _The controller replied, a touch of concern bleeding into their voice.

I looked up as we reached the top of the sand dune, hearing the sound of the approaching shuttle. Edge screamed "RPG!" and I turned in horror; seeing the terrorist holding a familiar tube of metal. Only now he wasn't aiming at us; his eyes were on another prize entirely.

"Shoot him!" I barked.

It was a million to one shot; 600 meters easy, not in a proper shooting position, worn out from climbing the sand dune, and probably still a little disoriented from the near miss from the previous RPG shot.

But she made it.

_BANG!_

The .50 caliber round tore through the man's chest, and he fell backwards; squeezing the trigger on his dying breath. The RPG round flew from the tube, and arced straight towards the Shuttle to our horror. It missed by inches, slamming into the sand next to the transport and exploding in a flurry of molten sand and metal shrapnel.

The shuttle rose up and flew up to the top of the sand dune; Blade and Switch already on board.

I practically threw the Quarian at Blade, and climbed on board; turning to make sure Edge had made it on. Then it felt like someone hit me in the chest with a sledgehammer; and I fell flat on my back to the floor of the shuttle, the wind knocked out of me.

I looked down and saw an AK round lodged in my armor; and it was covered in blood, but it wasn't mine.

Edge was face first on the floor, blood gushing from the side of her neck; the bullet had clipped it and smashed into my chest plate. She was already choking on her blood, and thrashing about in pain; panic written clear in her eyes.

All the while, gunshots pinging the side of the shuttle as the terrorists and militia fighters had already started to climb the sand dune. "Pilot we're on board! Get to the _Selene;_ have medics ready we got wounded back here." I shouted.

"You got it!" He shouted back.

I took my attention away from him and tuned back to edge; flipping her around, and I quickly stripped her helmet, bandana and mask off as I pulled out bandages to try and stop her bleeding. _This Intel better have been worth it._ I cursed as Edge's blood filled coughs filled the cabin. _It better have been fucking worth it._

* * *

I sat down at the table with a grunt rubbing the beard that I had started to grown in the past few weeks. I had already stripped off my armor, and was dressed in my urban camo uniform that I wore underneath it.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out a storage drive.

_So much bloodshed and death for such a tiny little thing._ I thought bitterly.

I reached forward and typed a few commands, and the doors to the room I was in locked; the lights dimming as two familiar figures appeared by hologram. I came to attention, groaning internally with exhaustion; "General Grant; Colonel Schultz, sirs. Major Lee reporting for debriefing as ordered." I said.

"At ease August; sit down already and have a rest." Grant replied, a light smirk adorning his features. The former Delta could read right through me, and saw how tired I was; in spite of my attempts to hide it.

I gave a quick nod and plopped back down in my chair; thankful for the air-conditioning aboard the ship. Spending a few weeks on a desert planet was never fun.

"We read your initial report, passed the data you sent to the eggheads, and watched your CrossCOMM's footage; and we have questions." Schultz said.

"Go for it." I sighed.

"Is the Quarian you found really Keenah'Breizh?" Schultz asked.

"Yes, he got picked up on Illium by members of EA; and they were holding him in that compound, probably to try and find out where Tali'Zorah went. He learning while they were holding him that the Imam had given orders to have that data destroyed." I replied.

"Which begs the question; why would they want that message? If anything it helps their cause, makes the Turians and Batarians look bad; and further delegitimizes Admiral Gar'dawar's 'occupation' of Tajicstan." Grant mused.

"I think this is just further evidence the Imam is in cahoots with Saren and the Reapers. Both are terrible xenophobes, but the reapers are probably keeping them unaware the two are working together." I pointed out.

Both officers seemed to contemplate it for a moment, and then nodded.

Grant pulled up his omnitool "I have some calls to make."

* * *

_/Ambassador Donnel Udnia has entered the Chat_

_/Major General Hyrum Grant has entered the Chat_

_/Vice Admiral Steven Hackett has entered the Chat_

"_**What evidence do you have that Eden Prime is in danger?" **_

"_One of my teams just got back to me with lots of data; and most importantly, communication between a council Spectre and a Batarian Pirate stating that they intend to attack the Colony. I'm hurt that you two would doubt the legitimacy of any Intel I provide."_

"Udina and I don't doubt the legitimacy of the data General; although I am sure the Senate would doubt the legitimacy of your methods in obtaining it."

"_**Enough about that gentleman, the question is what do we do about it? Lt. Cmdr. Shepherd and Captain Anderson are on-route to Eden Prime as we speak for Shepards Spectre trials; along with that council Spectre, what's his name… Niles?"**_

"_Nihlus Kryik."_

"I would ask how you know that, but something tells me I don't want to know the answer."

"_No Admiral, you don't."_

"_**We're getting off track."**_

"Apology's Ambassador; I have already started moving assets to Eden Prime, but the closest will reach it in eight hours; the _Normandy_ will arrive in four. The only defense the Colony has is a single Super MAC; and it's only halfway finished. But Skell Tech employee's tell me that the main cannon and its reloading and firing mechanism are safe to use."

"_Hm… Good thing we have that; I know I wasn't the only one that had to check my underwear when Dr. Heliix and Mr._ _Laaf'Teenar fired that thing at that old dreadnaught."_

"_**Do you have anything of substance to add General? Or are you just here to waste our time?"**_

"_Sigh… sorry for trying to lighten the mood. Fine then, I have a few Case Officers planet side; and I alerted the Station Chief to start the destruction phase and alert the local authorities. I have half a Fireteam on the ground as well; but they have strict orders to maintain radio silence and stay hidden unless absolutely necessary. Standard GST operating procedure; we still don't exist, this potential attack doesn't change anything."_

"Good, we can't get a message to the _Normandy_ until they leave FTL; so your GST assets, the Super MAC, and a small Marine detachment is all we have at the moment."

"_What, no Army garrison?"_

"_**Don't sound surprised General; after Shanxi, most major colonies don't trust the Army not to sell them out. Why the small ones still trust you is a mystery to me."**_

"_I do hope you realize that if you were next to me I would kneecap you Ambassador."_

"_**Duly noted, if you'll excuse me; I have to try and get a meeting with the council."**_

_/Ambassador Donnel Udina has Disconnected_

"_Arrogant Ass… I don't know why he's even bothering; that other Quarian, the one that got away, is the one that has the communication between Saren and Balak. The Council won't believe us without seeing and hearing that message from the source."_

"You know that, and I know that; but it will at least keep him off our backs for the time being."

"_True enough; I'm redeploying Nomad to the Citadel, we lost two people trying to get this Intel. The Quarian isn't in too good shape either, but he'll make it."_

"Pass my condolences to the Major then; and why the Citadel?"

"_We can't prove it; but we think that Saren and the Imam are working together. We've been trying our best to stamp out Eayan Allah from spreading beyond Tajicstan; but they have begun to gain a healthy following throughout the colonies in the Skyllian Verge, mainly because the Systems Alliance refuses to protect them."_

"Don't get mad at me, I agree; but these damned politicians will throw massive hissy fits if we try and move our fleets away from the inner colonies. In any case; what does this have to do with the Citadel?"

"_Like I said, we have no proof; but Nomad believes that Saren will use the Batarians or other proxies to attack Eden Prime, and then the Imam will send a retaliatory attack on the Citadel and claim responsibility. And you know how the Council is; they'll blame all of humanity for the attacks rather than just the terrorist group. _

_Batarians clamp down harder on the Verge; Eayan Allah jumps up their attacks on Council races and the Alliance, Council clamps down on humanity, humanity gets mad, badda bing badda boom we have ourselves a nice and pretty Galactic War going."_

"What would Saren have to gain from this? A Galactic war would probably hurt the Turian Hierarchy and the other Council races more than humanity. If there's one thing we're good at, it's being spiteful in the face of defeat."

"_Saren hates humanity, and anyone else he sees as a lesser race. He probably hopes to either wipe out humanity in a mass genocide, or subjugate them under the hierarchy. Or maybe even try and make a power grab and set himself up as a dictator. The Possibilities are endless with someone like Saren."_

"You sound like Anderson."

"_I admit, some of these sound a little far-fetched; but I don't take chances with someone like Saren. I've read his Spectre files, even those that the Council blacked out; and it all points to a very ugly picture. _

_Even before first contact, Saren had a chilling disregard for people's lives. Granted, in this business the GST, STG, Blackwatch, Commando's and all the other intelligence and SF units each species possess; a certain level sociopathy is needed to do the kind of dirty work we get into._

_But we all try to limit any collateral damage when we can; and we never hurt an innocent, even the Turians after First Contact have put a harsh clamp down on civilian casualties, lest they draw everyone's ire._

_Saren… He doesn't disregard Collateral damage as a possibility so much as think it doesn't exist. _

_To him no one is innocent."_

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you broke into the most secure servers in the galaxy; but you are right, at least from the non-classified files I've seen. But why would the Imam and Saren deign to work together?

"_Terrorists and Black Operators are not particularly picky when it comes to whose help they take. So long as all parties interests align somewhat coherently._

_The Imam and Saren both benefit from keeping up this cycle of escalation. For the Imam, It sends more people to Eayan Allah for help and protection which increases his power; and for Saren, the more Eayan Allah lashes out, the more crimes and broaches of privacy and freedom he is able to justify in the name of 'Galactic Stability' and it makes him more popular by extension._

_As it stands; I'm sending Nomad and a few Fireteams to the Citadel to try and hunt down any Eayan Allah members they can find before they strike. And try and find this Quarian girl before the Imam's and Sarens forces find her and destroy the data and kill her. _

_I pray they can find them."_

"Hm… At least you've thought things out. What are call signs of the operators on Eden Prime by the way? I need to tell Anderson so that Shepherd and Nihlus don't friendly fire them by mistake."

"_Ah yes, Garth and Brooks; Garth's an old hand, he knows how shit works. But Brooks is newer; she just finished training about a month ago, but Nomad and Garth both vouched for her and she's all I have on hand at the moment."_

"Garth…"

"_Yes…"_

"And Brooks…"

"…_Yes."_

"…"

"…"

"Garth Brooks… Are you serious Hyrum?"

"_They pick the names, not me; apparently God has a sense of humor putting those two on a mission together."_

"Sigh… they better do their job General; I'll be in touch."

_/Vice Admiral Steven Hackett has Disconnected_

"… _I hope they do too Steven…"_

_/Major General Hyrum Grant has Disconnected_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out; I wanted it to originally be on New Year's Day, but I read through this chapter and found that I didn't like its quality or its plot points. I figured I could change a few things and it would be better.**

**Well low and behold; after six different iterations and rewrites, here we are. **

**For all the time it took, I'm rather satisfied with the result. You can tell that I took some influences from the latest Call of Duty and from the Second Sicario Movie; both of which I love.**

**Something most fanfics I get of the main game; is that most don't cover that for all intents and purposes, the first game was a massive proxy war between the Alliance and Saren. Of course; with Canon as usual going off the rails, the scale of this proxy war has been upped significantly.**

**Next Chapter will cover Eden Prime, I promise; but it will be a little… different than how you are used to it.**

**Speaking of which, I'm pissed because my steam account got hacked; now I'm locked out of it, and the person is now trying to scam other people using it. Contacted Steam Support and gave them proof of ownership of the account and all the other hoops I had to jump through; aaaaaannnnnd nothing….**

**With how notoriously slow and bad Steam Support is I don't expect to ever get my account back.**

**I'm more annoyed than upset; I had close to a hundred games on my account, but most I had not played in… years. And most I had gotten in sales or were free to play. And the really expensive ones I still have access too through other accounts or they were disks.**

**Still… it's really fucking annoying.**

**I ever find this person I'm elbow capping them so they can't use a computer ever again.**

**Anyway…**

**Leave a review and tell me what y'all think.**

**I would really love a TV Tropes Page. **

**Fanart is always welcome; just contact me if you have questions.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	10. Eden Prime Part 1

_**A/N: Important Question for you guys at the bottom**_

**Eden Prime, February 19****th****, 2183; 0932 hours**

Brooks shot up from where she lay, scrambling for her pistol.

"Calm down kid, it's me." A familiar voice said.

Brooks blinked the sleep out of her eyes, before calming herself; "Garth, you should know better than to kick me awake; I almost shot you." She grumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Sorry, but we got shit to do; the Skell Techies just sent a planet wide alert, 'enemy fleet approaching.' They appear to be Batarian pirates." He replied, sounding uncaring and laid back like usual.

Brooks whipped her head around to face him directly; any remnants of sleep having been driven from her mind. "Batarians?" She asked.

"Yup, no sign of the Geth; and the Station Chief told me something even more concerning, no sign of Sovereign." He replied, "Doesn't matter though; get your shit and suit up! We got company coming kid, and I need you to be ready. Meet me outside, and be quick about it."

Garth shut the door behind him, and Brooks stood up and went to her bathroom; quickly washing her face and stripping down and taking a shower. It would probably be a long time before she could get clean again.

She dried herself off and looked back into the mirror; her Pilipino features glared back. _I hope the Batarians are indoctrinated, because I don't think Reapers have an interest in raping organics._ She thought grimly.

She put her undergarments on, then pulled on her vacuum rated skintight black under suit; then quickly put on her urban camo BDU over top of it. The gloves and boots were next; followed by her Ghost Armor.

Chest rig, shoulder pauldrons, and bracers; followed by upper leg armor, lower leg armor, and then finally the cod-piece. Contrary to popular belief, it did hurt woman to get hit in the crotch; although nowhere near as much as men.

She pulled the skintight hood of the under suit over her head; reminding Brooks of the days she went scuba diving with her dad. Her oxygen mask for vacuum or low oxygen environments went next, hooking the thin but strong tubes to her oxygen tank on her back; sealing against the suits hood.

The helmet came next; strapping it to her head, she hit a button, and the clear visor came down and sealed with her oxygen mask with a loud _hiss! _Her light blue HUD came on, quickly booting up and loading up all the software required to run all the suits functions. Unless the cloak was engaged, or you manually toned down; it glowed a bright blue, disallowing anyone from seeing the user's eyes.

Brooks looked back at the mirror and smirked. There were two types of armor the Ghosts used.

There was the cheaper, all-purpose variant; and all that was, was the chest rig, cod-piece, helmet and visor, and the shoulder pieces. The main advantage of it was that it could be thrown on in seconds; and could be worn over pretty much anything. It still had the cloak, and a few other bells and whistles; but most Ghosts agreed it was best used when behind enemy lines, where it could be put on over top of your disguises.

The biggest issue, of course, was that it was not vacuum rated; and that was a pretty big problem on spaceships.

The other variant, was the kind she and Garth were currently using; the Exo-suit.

Vacuum rated, offered ballistic protection all over the body rather than just the vitals; it had an exoskeleton, which doubled the user's strength and tripled the endurance. It was deathly quiet, making no noise when in use; unless you strained it, such as trying to lift a Krogan.

And above all it was very customizable.

Garth had a jet-pack on his; allowing him to zip around, and get to out of reach places with next to no hassle.

Brooks had chosen an over the shoulder mini-missile launcher; it was so satisfying to hit a command on her arm-pad and send guided missiles flying into her enemies cover where they thought they were safe.

She looked down and grabbed the last piece of her armor. It wasn't an armor piece though; it was her bandanna. When Nomad had formed the first Ghost Fireteam three years prior; they all had one thing in common, the Ghost bandanna.

Every SF unit had their own ritual and almost obsessive tradition; and for the GST, it was the bandanna. It was who you were. You were issued it when you graduated Nomads grueling six month training camp; and you could choose the design that went on it.

When you chose that design, it was yours; no other ghost could use it.

Until you died that is.

And even then, there was a tradition surrounding that. When the previous bearer of the bandanna's design had died, their chalk would do one of two things; one, they would pass it on to the Ghosts family, and let their spirit watch over them until the bandanna withered away or was forgotten.

Or, they would burn it; and scatter the ashes in the person's birth country, allowing their spirit to pass on from this existence with the knowledge that they had completed their purpose.

If a new recruit accidentally picked the same design after the old one had been burned; it meant that the Ghost's purpose in this universe had not been fulfilled, and it had possessed a new host to complete its task. Garth's was a T-800's endoskeleton from terminator; more specifically the face from the nose down.

Brooks had chosen a Megalodon's head; the open jaw, and bone like nose, and splashed with hints of blood. It called to mind her heritage, her mother a Pilipino Navy woman; and her father, an American Navy SEAL.

There was an impatient knock at her door; "Hey kid you done? Cause we gotta go, like now." Garth shouted from the other side.

"On my way sir!" Brooks replied, quickly putting her bandanna on; and then grabbing her .50 caliber Beowulf and side arms as she walked out of the safe house and into the war.

* * *

Brooks kicked a dead Batarian over, making sure he really was dead; "This makes no sense sir, what would the Batarians have to gain by sending pirates to attack Eden Prime?" She asked.

"Don't have to make sense kid, could be the Reapers plan to divide us in time for their harvest." Garth replied, not looking up from his armpad as he observed the pirates deployment from the GST spy drone cloaked in orbit.

Brooks huffed in response, turning her attention back to the sky; dozens of shuttles flew around unopposed, as the few fighters the navy had were being held in reserve, whatever the hell that meant.

The two of them had been moving toward where the drone had spotted the Marine contingent that Ashley Williams was a part of. Brooks personally hoped to save most of the Marines rather than just Ashley; but she wasn't optimistic about it.

The Batarians were brutal, and were killing anything that fought back.

This was her first real mission; not counting the minor raids Nomad had deployed her on while training. Nomad had been a firm believer that experience beat training; and once you got the basics down, he would take you on small fry missions.

They had torn through several Batarian patrols already; making sure to hack their comms so the pirates couldn't call for help whenever they engaged them. The hegemony had funded these pirates well, because they had been equipped with dead man switches; which Garth had tried to hack and shut down so they didn't trigger an alert when they killed them.

It didn't work, which had drawn a nearby patrol to their position after they had killed the pirates.

That time, Brooks didn't even bother letting Garth hack them; and just tossed an EMP grenade instead. That had done the trick, and the two of them had cut the patrol down pretty quickly; leaving the squad leader alive to be interrogated.

At least, that had been the plan; until the bastard took a cyanide pill and killed himself before they could even try.

"Have you found Williams sir?" Brooks finally asked, not willing to sit around and wait anymore. Garth, gave her a reproachful look from under his bandana; before saying, "Yes; and she's in trouble. General said minimal interference, but I don't think we have a choice. C'mon, let's get moving."

Brooks grimaced, but didn't reply; all too aware the three gold chevrons on her shoulder were vastly outclassed by the silver railroad bars on Garth's. He may have been her mentor, but he was still her superior; and she knew she had really pressed her luck with her impatience. If there was one thing all Ghosts had drilled into their heads; it was "be patient", their greatest strength was striking at the right moment.

As the saying went; "Impatient Ghosts fail and die; Patient Ghosts succeed and fuck the Queen."

"We got two squads chasing her, and a third moving to cut her off; Shepherd and Alenko are nearby, we just gotta take out that third squad and she'll be good." Garth said, breaking Brooks out of her thoughts.

"Yes sir, but what if Williams see's us; and tries to help?" She felt compelled to ask.

Garth actually seemed to think about that as they jogged to the intercept point that he'd set up; and finally shrugged, "We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it kid." He said, sounding slightly embarrassed that he hadn't considered that.

Brooks actually felt a bit of pride that she'd one upped the old timer in some way.

Garth had been one of the pre-GST travelers; he'd been here for six years, and even gotten married and had a few kids. He was close friends with Major Lee, one of the GST's founders; close enough friends that the Major actually let Garths wife look after his kid while he was on missions. The Major was quite famous for being kind of overprotective of little June'lee, so that was a great display of trust.

Brooks in quite the contrast to her team leader and mentor; was a post GST traveler.

She had come to this universe only eight months ago; and was of the latest crop of Ghosts. One of the biggest contrasts between the pre-GST travelers, and post-GST travelers, was their ability to consider alternate possibilities from canon. The pre-GST travelers had the advantage, because they had been in this altered universe longer; and were more used to the quirks and changes from canon this universe possessed.

Garth held up a fist and dropped to a crouch; activating his cloak.

Brooks did the same, her eyes snapping to her motion tracker for movement; sure enough, six red dots were closing on their position. She grabbed an EMP grenade and adjusted her grip; ready to lob it at the first sign of trouble. "EMP grenade ready." She hissed.

_"On my word."_ Garth replied, steel entering his normally casual tone.

They stayed crouched down and cloaked for only a minute; before the Batarian squad that was flanking Williams appeared. They seemed almost bored, despite the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the distance. They were bored and arrogant enough to actually chat with each other openly rather than keep it to private comms where they could only hear each other.

"Why all this effort for one human Marine? We should be getting more stock rather than chasing a human dead on their feet." One groused unhappily.

"That little bitch killed at least ten of our guys, and she's killed three more while on the run; she's got spunk, I think I'll make her my personal slave. Get some good fucks in, and I'll have a good hardworking servant for when we get back home." Another retorted, sounding almost excited.

Brooks tightened her grip on her Beowulf; _A Ghost must always be patient, draw them in, draw them in._ She thought to herself.

"You want the job of breaking her, go for it; much easier to kill her and take one of the more submissive women instead." A third commented, sounding almost bored.

"_Wait for it Brooks." _Garth whispered.

"Can I use my missiles?" She asked quietly.

Garth seemed to ponder it for a moment; then he said, _"Only after you hit them with the EMP and our first volley."_

Brooks gave a feral grin; "Copy that." It wasn't often should got use her big guns, but it was always a treat when she did get to use them.

"There she is, little idiotic bitch is heading for the cliffs; what the hell does she think she's gonna do? Jump to her death?" A fourth laughed.

"_Send it kid."_

The Batarians were about a stone's throw away from where the Ghosts were hidden; so Brooks lobbed the EMP grenade underhanded so she didn't overshoot.

_Klang! _"Ow!" okay, maybe she baseball pitched it at the balls of the leader that was talking about enslaving and raping Williams. A little childish, she had to admit; but it was still immensely satisfying.

"GRENADE!"

"SHIT!"

"RUN!"

The EMP grenade whirred and clicked; the blue light it emitted shutting off as it sent out its pulse. The Pirates didn't have time to contemplate this grenade being a supposed dud, as both Garth and Brooks quickly headshot the leader and their point man.

The six remaining Pirates scrambled behind some rocks and trees, trying to figure out where the snipers that had killed their leader and their squad mate had shot from.

"_All yours kid." _Garth said, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.

Brooks turned on her arm-pad; while throwing a sensor grenade behind the Batarian formation. Her CrossCOMM HUD lit up with where the Batarians had hidden themselves exactly; two behind a large boulder, and four behind trees each with his own tree.

Perfect, she could leave one alive to for interrogation.

She tapped a few commands into her arm-pad and set the targets for her missile launcher; then settled into a crouch as her launcher whirred to life. It angled itself, and then there was a series of ripping noises as the four micro-missiles rushed from the four tubes in the launcher; quickly igniting their boosters and unfolding their miniature guidance flaps.

The first soared straight up, then came straight back down and exploded between the two Batarians behind the boulder; the explosion was a little more than half as powerful as a regular frag grenade, but far more accurate. The two Pirates went flying, filled with shrapnel and already dead from the concussive blast that had scrambled their insides and brains.

The second and third simply slammed into the ground beside where the Pirates had hidden behind the tree's, a similar fate befalling them.

The fourth was particularly unfortunate; as he stepped out from behind the tree as Brookes launched the missiles. So he had the distinct honor of actually seeing his death coming; as he had stepped right in the path of the missile as it slammed into his abdomen.

The pirate gasped in pain and horror as he looked down at the sputtering micro-missile buried in his gut; and then it exploded, blasting him in half as his blood and guts rained down around the area.

Garth and Brooks didn't even stop to gawk, as they rushed the last Pirate; the Batarian too busy staring at what used to be his friend.

Brooks ripped his rifle away before he could react; and then smashed the butt of her rifle into the Pirates gut, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to double over in pain. Garth attached his rifle to his back, and grabbed both of the Pirates arms and pinned them behind the man's back.

Handcuffing the Pirate, Garth took his pistol out and pressed it to the Batarians head.

The Pirate froze, knowing exactly what was being pointed at him. "Okay there _Señor, _we can do this the easy way; or the hard way. For every time you lie or refuse to answer my questions; my friend here will burn one of your eyes out, and she will make sure you feel every second of it." Garth sneered, his southern accent becoming a full on drawl with every syllable out of his mouth

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you anything, just don't burn my eyes out!" The Pirate exclaimed, his will already crumbling to pieces; the shock of his squads seemingly instantaneous annihilation more than convincing him that these people, whoever they were, meant business.

Garth snorted at how easily the guy had crumbled; but at least it made his job easier.

While Garth dealt with the idiot Pirate; Brooks pulled up the feed from the spy drone to get a bead on where Williams, Shepherd, and Alenko were at the moment. To her relief, Shepherd and Alenko appeared to be fine and were making steady progress to the rendezvous point with Williams.

As for the Gunnery Chief.

Brooks eyes widened with horror as she found that the Gunnery Chief was altering her course to the wrong direction. "Shit!" She hissed, drawing Garths attention.

"What?" He asked.

"Williams is going the wrong way!" She replied.

"What?!" He exclaimed, surprise leaking into his voice for the first time.

_If she keeps going that way, she'll run into more Batarian's; and we can't get to her to stop her or get rid of the Batarians in her way. Shit! What do I do?! _Brooks asked herself. Then it hit her; she knew what she had to do, _I have no choice, you can court martial me later Garth._

She kept her eyes on her arm-pad as she reached up with her right hand, and switched her comms to Williams's frequency. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, can you hear me." She asked.

"Kid what the hell ya doin?!" Garth exclaimed, and she could see his eyes bugging out of his head behind his CrossCOMM; while the Batarian looked back and forth in confusion.

Brooks turned away from him, gathering her courage for disobeying her orders.

"Gunnery Chief Williams, do you read?"

* * *

Ashley was running for her life; sheer terror and resolve was all that was keeping her going.

The Batarians had blitzed right through their meager defenses; the incomplete Super MAC in orbit had given them pause, and allowed them to set up a partial defense, and it had even destroyed the old Dreadnaught that the Batarians had brought with them.

But it had been swept aside and disabled rather quickly after that first devastating shot.

With no air support, the Batarians had swarmed both the dig site and the capitol city; blasting aside their defenses, like a strong wind through a pile of leaves. It was only thanks to God, and while she didn't admit it, her skill; that she was still alive.

She could hear two squads of Batarians closing in behind her; joking about raping her and breaking her for when they inevitably caught her. Ashley had tears in her eyes; her friends and comrades were dead. Sure, they had taken awhile to warm up to General Williams's granddaughter; but they had been genuine friends.

A shot grazed her shoulder, and Ash hissed in pain; she stumbled but quickly recovered.

She didn't dare stop moving; she knew what would happen if she stopped moving. Her assault rifles ammo block was half empty; and she could see that she was running out of places to run. A cliff leading into the canyon; both making her a fish and a barrel, and presenting a strong possibility of breaking her legs.

Ash was running out of options, and she knew that the Batarians would probably catch her if she did so, but she had no choice now. She started to angle away from the cliff, already feeling herself beginning to slow.

"…_ry Ch… il…iam… …ead me?" _a voice barked into her earpiece.

Ash stumbled again in surprise, but managed to recover.

"_Gunnery Chief Williams, do you read?"_ The voice, now clearly identifiable as a woman, said; her voice clearing up a lot.

Ash, threw two of her four remaining grenades at the trailing Batarians; she heard them curse and stumble to a stop and scramble for cover. She took the opportunity to catch her breath before replying; "I read you; who are you?" She half demanded, her exhaustion playing into her lack of tact.

"_Call me Brooks; listen to me, there is an alliance N7 team to you immediate south-east down in the canyon. If you desire to live, you need to scale down that cliff; I can guide you to them but you need to trust me." _The woman called Brooks replied.

"How can I trust you? For all I know you're working with these Pirates."Ashley hissed in reply, but already psyching herself up for the climb down into the canyon.

"_Hat-trick." _Brooks replied, which was the current pass phrase for Systems Alliance Special Forces in the field. There was no way that the Batarians, Pirate or otherwise, would know that phrase.

That meant Brooks was either an Alliance spook, or an SF operator; that was both good and bad for her. Good because now she had some viable backup; and bad because if a Spook was breaking cover to help her, that meant things truly were fucked.

"Alright, what do I do?" She asked, hearing the Batarians already start to reorganize.

"_See that cliff in front of you?"_

"Yeah, what about it?"

"_I'm gonna need you to jump off it."_

There was a long pause as Ash digested what Brooks had just said.

"You're kidding right? I can't just climb down?" She finally asked the spook, praying to God that she wasn't serious.

"_Even if you had time to try, there are no purchases for you to get a grip on. Just jump off of it, you'll be fine." _There was a long pause, to which Ash didn't deign to respond to; which Brooks took to be a silent refusal of her instructions.

"_Look, at this point it's either bullets or broken bones Gunnery Chief; and bones heal, NOW MOVE YOUR ASS MARINE!"_ the Spook bellowed in a Drill Sergeant's voice, causing Ash to involuntarily straighten her spine.

She took a breath, huffed; and full tilt sprinted toward the cliff side.

"She's running!"

"Get the bitch! I ain't letting that slave escape me!"

The Batarians started shooting both regular Slugs, and Taser rounds to try and incapacitate her. But as if Gods angels were protecting her, all the fire thrown at her seemed to just barely miss; whizzing by her head and arms as she ran.

The edge came up too quickly, but she was moving too fast to stop herself; she jumped as slugs zipped all around her, and felt a brief sense of weightlessness. Then gravity reasserted its control, and she plummeted like a brick.

_This is gonna hurt!_ She thought while squeezing her eyes shut; to her surprise, it wasn't hard dirt or rock that she hit.

But something far more forgiving, a rushing river.

_SPLASH!_

* * *

Brooks stood up out of her crouch, internally cringing as she turned around to face Garth.

The good captain was glaring her down; her diminutive height of 5'4" was highlighted by his towering 6'5". Brooks gulped, but stared back defiantly; _Yeah, I interfered, but canons already off the rails with the Batarians. You taught me to think outside the box, so I did._ She told herself, but that didn't help the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach.

It was funny, that with how advanced the Ghosts Exo-suit was; this gaggle of pirates barely registered as a threat, largely due to sheer numbers more than anything else.

But when the man who was her superior, in rank, skill and experience; was looking at her like death incarnate, she found it hard to keep her herself steady.

It was only a few seconds; then Garth drew his Hi-Power.

_BANG!_

Brooks flinched, and she heard a loud crunching sound as the Batarian they had taken prisoner flopped dead to the ground; he was already missing two of his eyes, and was now missing a third. "Alright kid… you shadow Williams, and guide Shepherd and her company to the Beacon; I'll go after Nihlus, and see if I can't get him to keep his guard up around Saren." He said, sounding almost tired.

Brooks blinked, as she looked at the one eye not obstructed to outside view by Garths HUD.

She wasn't sure, but it looked like he was smiling under his mask and bandanna. "I taught you to think outside the box, and own up to your decisions. You did just that; now go help the Gunnery Chief, she should have fished herself out of the water by now."

The smile that adorned her face threatened to split Brooks' head in half; "Yes sir!"

* * *

After allowing herself to float downstream a little bit, Ashley finally dragged herself onto the shore; a little closer to the dig site now. She was all waterlogged, and felt very much like her families cat after the time it fell in her bathtub.

"Urgh…" She grunted.

"_Finally done with your bath Gunnery Chief?" _Brooks asked, sounding almost amused.

Ash huffed into her mic, and flipped her bird even though there was no way the spook would see it; not even bothering raise her arm from where it lay.

"_Hey! Same to you then; is this the thanks I get for helping you?" _She asked with mock hurt.

Ash shot up like a slug, and looked around; drawing her rifle as she did so, "You can see me?" She demanded.

"_More accurately my cloaked drone can see you; say cheese." _The spook replied, _"In all seriousness, you need to get moving; you got a good break letting the current carry you down this close to the dig site. The N7's should be arriving here soon, but you should know there is a squad or two of Batarians heading your way from the west. The N7's are coming to you from the north-east."_

"Fuck me," Ash ground out.

"_I'd take your offer but I don't swing that way. I'd advise you do a fighting retreat; set up an ambush and whittle these guys down as you run. Normally I would just book it, but we need to keep their attention away from the civvies." _Brooks advised.

"Great… thanks for the help." Ashley replied, feeling somewhat rejuvenated now that she'd had the opportunity to rest somewhat.

"_Thank me by getting me a date with that cute biotic that's with the N7." _Brooks said, sounding a little flirty.

Ash laughed in spite of herself; "No promises there spook; I'll be in touch." Then she went about the task of laying an ambush for the approaching Batarians.

* * *

Brooks held both of her hands to her face, "Oh my God, I can't believe I just said that." Already feeling her tanned face start to turn red with embarrassment.

Garth just laughed over the comms; _"It's an intense combat environment; you say stupid shit to relieve some of the stress all the time. Besides, you made her laugh and gave her a moral boost. Keep on top of them, and keep communication to a minimum._

_I've already spotted Nihlus, and I'm shadowing him. _

_I'll be switching to his frequency now; so unless you really need me, stay on our private frequency. And make sure you monitor my conversation with Nihlus, Shepherd and Alenko, and Gunnery Chief Williams._

_Good luck, and stay hidden." _

He left their frequency, leaving her alone for the time being.

Brooks watched the area with the drone, but wasn't finding any significant developments since the last thirty seconds she had checked it. Williams had yet to ask for her, and Shepherd and Alenko were slowly but surely making their way to the Gunnery Chief.

_Oh yeah, it's all coming together._

* * *

Nihlus kept to the shadows, killing any Batarians he came across; but otherwise, he made sure to continue onto his objective.

He had so many questions; but chief among them was that why would the Hegemony risk a blatant act of war by sending one of their more well equipped pirate fleets after a place like Eden Prime.

It had been a surprise to Nihlus when Captain Anderson had called him to his quarters; and found himself face to face with a human he had never met nor seen before.

"_I am Major General Grant, Spectre; and I'm here to inform you that we have intelligence reports that Eden Prime is in danger of being attacked."_

Were the first words out of that man's mouth; and had turned what was supposed to be a simple evaluation into a full blown war. Nihlus had been cursing the man the whole trip, because it had the characteristic Intelligence agency flip-flop of _"it might be attacked, it might not; but we think it might."_

He hated that; whether it was information brokers, Blackwatch, STG, it didn't matter.

All of them always said that the information they had was good; but it could still be wrong. Just pick one; either its good or it was bad.

Nihlus huffed; he did have to admit, at least this intelligence person had a backbone and said that Eden Prime was going to be attacked, but Nihlus had the distinct feeling that was how the man felt, not the intelligence people.

"Hm… why would the Batarians do this?" he asked himself.

"_I think a better question is, how do the Batarians know that beacon is here in the first place?" _A voice said over his private frequency.

"Shit!" Nihlus jumped and dove into cover, expecting a shot.

None came.

He tapped his audio piece in irritation; of course someone had to tap into his comms frequency by accident as he was blurting out classified info. "Who are you? And how did you get this frequency?" He demanded.

"_To answer your second question, I'm afraid that's classified." _The voice replied, an annoying twangy accent coloring it, _"And to answer your first, well… Captain Anderson must have mentioned me to avoid friendly fire. My names Garth, pleasure to meet ya Spectre."_

Nihlus frowned, racking his memory before the name came to him.

"Ah yes, you are that Special Forces operator that the Captain mentioned before we deployed; you and… Book?" He asked.

"_Brooks, and she's currently busy helping guide Shepherd and a Marine survivor to the dig site. Now let's get down to business; how would the Batarians even know that the Beacon is here?" _He asked; the joking tone from before fading away to a serious one.

Nihlus narrowed his eyes, but decided to indulge the man; after all he did have some good incites as to what was going on.

He switched frequencies for a moment; "I've got a lot of burned out buildings here Shepherd. And a lot of bodies. I'm going to check it out before heading to the dig site, I'll meet you there."

"_Understood." _Was her reply, before more gunfire came through the line.

Nihlus switched back to Garths frequency; "Well… there is no way the Batarians would know directly. This mission was classified by the highest order. Only the council, Ambassador Udina, Admiral Hackett, your Prime Minister, and Captain Anderson would have known about it.

And I don't think I could imagine any of them leaking the data out; Udina is the most likely candidate, but he wouldn't risk the blow-back to Humanity just advance himself or line his pockets in some way.

Anderson couldn't, because he wasn't even told until he left the Citadel.

Hackett and your Prime Minister I think are above suspicion; although I'm damned curious as to how you know about the Beacon."

"_I heard you muttering to yourself about it the whole way here; I've been on your frequency for quite some time. But I do agree with you; as much as I wish it was Udina. So that still begs the question; how did the Batarians find out, and why would they blatantly attack a Human colony like this._" Garth replied, sounding thoughtful.

It didn't take long for Nihlus to figure out what he was implying. "You can't possibly mean a Spectre leaked the data to the Batarians. What would they have to gain from that?"

"_Power grab? Weapons for their species or for themselves? The possibilities are endless Spectre. _

_Look… I don't like the thought any more than you do, but it's the only explanation that makes sense. You have a traitor in you ranks; either for monetary gain, political power, or for ideological reasons. _

_Out of all the Spectres you know personally; who would have had access to council dispatches within the week the beacon you discovered and when you left?" _He asked.

Nihlus had to think about it; during which time he shot several more Batarians and pirates, seeing more than just Batarians now, and taking care to avoid unnecessary conflicts as he worked towards the dig site.

"Of everyone I know personally, there are only three I know for a fact that were on the Citadel at the time of the beacons discovery; and would have been able to access the records." He finally said.

"_Who"_ Garth pressed, sounding very distressed now; and Nihlus couldn't really blame him. From the human's point of view; a group of highly clandestine operators that were essentially above the law had, for all intents and purposes, led an all-out assault on a human planet.

"Jondum Bau, a Salarian; but it wouldn't make much sense for him to stick his neck out like this. If he wanted the beacon, he would have just stolen it covertly rather than lead a massive pirate blitz."

"_Okay that eliminates one suspect; what about the other two?" _Garth asked, pausing a moment to fire his weapon; hopefully at some Pirates.

"Tela Vasir, an Asari; but again, it makes no sense. She would get the information regardless, considering how close she is to Councilor Tevos."

"_And the last?"_

Nihlus felt a pall of dread overcome him, as he realized who the last possible suspect was. "It… can't be…

"_Who?"_

"He's the best of all the Spectres… he's the one we all look up to…"

"_Who is it?" _Garth pressed.

Nihlus set his mandibles, and growled angrily; "My old friend and Mentor; Saren Arterius."

* * *

**A/N: So yeah, a bit of an internal reveal for Nihlus; all Garth had to do was convince him to think outside the box.**

**Even with Canon flying off the rails like it has been, some things never change. **

**The only reason that Nihlus is even considering Saren to be a traitor at all is because the guy is a pretty blatant racist in both canon and in this universe. Now that Nihlus knows, that means he is saved; even if he can't apprehend Saren (because let's be honest, catching Saren now would be a bit boring), right?**

**Ehhh…**

**Wait and see to find out.**

**So I have to ask; can any of you draw? Because I'm thinking about doing a comic version of this and adding it to deviant art. I'm basically asking the person to do it as a hobby or favor, because I'm poor and can't afford to pay someone to do it; and I can't do it, because I screw up even stick figures. I can make you a co-producer, and inside access to the story; but that's about it.**

**Just PM if you're interested.**

**The new cover image is not mine and belongs to Ubisoft who made Ghost Recon Future Soldier. (Even though it was VERY early concept art.) And it is also what the Ghosts Exo-Armor looks like; while the final Future Soldier armor (the one that looks more grounded and modern) is the "behind the lines" cheapo-variant. **

**Alright; with that out of the way, I would really love a TV Tropes page.**

**Leave a review and tell me what you think (But please don't be a dick.)**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	11. Eden Prime Part 2

**Eden Prime, February 19th, 2183; 1038 hours**

"_There's a boulder to your right with a deep pit behind it; get into the pit."_ Brooks ordered.

Ashley dived into it and crouched deep inside it; hearing the guttural growls of the Batarian hunting party approaching.

"_Don't move a muscle."_ Brooks hissed.

_As if I needed the fucking encouragement._ Ash retorted in her mind, but did not dare say so out loud. The spook had kept her alive so far, and had helped her net a healthy number of Batarians in the process.

She could hear them arguing; trying to figure out where she had disappeared to.

"_Your last grenade Williams, make it count."_ Brooks reminded her.

Ashley pulled the pin, and tossed it; waiting until it hit the ground, and then pulled herself out of the pit and took off in a sprint. The Batarians shouted after her and moved to pursue; forgetting about the grenade she had lobbed into their midst.

_KRACK!_

The explosions shockwave caused her to stumble a little bit, but she continued unimpeded.

"_Reinforcements are just around the corner; there's a large cluster of rocks to your left, get behind them." _

Ash poured what felt like the last of her energy into her legs, full tilt sprinting behind the rock pile as the Batarians spotted her and started shooting. Ash drew her assault rifle, and started shooting back; but she knew that it was hopeless.

She was pinned, no grenades left; and eight Batarian pirates lusting after her.

She'd had a good run, and the Spook had done her best to keep her alive, but there was no running away this time. She was out of energy to try and keep running, and eventually; the Batarians would flank her and take her out. It was only a matter of time now.

"_Friendlies incoming in 3… 2… 1…" _

A hail of slugs tore from the crest of the hill in front of her; ripping through the Batarian search and destroy squad like a hot knife through butter. Ash slumped in relief as she watched the Batarians drop like flies, barely able to keep herself standing.

_Safe at last._

* * *

Shepard saw the Marine practically collapse from exhaustion behind cover.

She grimaced, that indicated that they had been fighting or running for a long time; which meant that the Marine would probably be of little help due to their exhaustion.

Alenko yanked a Batarian out of cover, who Shepard quickly shot; the Batarians dark red blood splattering the ground behind him. A second Batarian peeked his head out, only for Shepherd to fire another slug right through his eye.

Even as he fell, Shepard swept for more Batarians; and upon finding none, she barked "Clear?"

"Clear!" Alenko shouted back, making his way to the left towards a set of crates to check to see if any Batarians were hiding behind them.

While he did that, Shepard walked over to the Marine that they had just rescued; making note of the blood, dirt, and ash coating the bright white and pink armor. "You all right Marine?" She called.

The woman straightened up, still panting slightly; "Just need to catch my breath ma'am, I ran at least five or six miles trying to keep these guys' attention on me and away from the civvies." She replied.

Shepard allowed a small smile, Marines actually fighting smarter rather than harder. Always good to see someone use their brain rather than their gun. "Smart thinking Marine; what's your name?" she asked.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marine Reconnaissance Battalion; are you the one in charge LC?"

"For the moment, yeah." Shepard confirmed, grimacing at how much of a colossal fuck up this Spectre evaluation had turned out to be. "You did good Gunnery Chief; you know where the rest of your unit is?"

She could see the color drain from the Marines tanned skin; "Oh God… we were patrolling the perimeter when the Skell Techies on the Super MAC sent out the alert. We tried to double back and send a distress call and protect the Beacon, but they cut all off world communications. I think I'm the last one left; and I only made it because of my friend."

Shepard grimaced, it was very rare for a unit to get wiped out like William's had; Akuze had been the exception. "Where's your friend, they buy it too?"

To her surprise, Williams seemed to lighten up a bit; she grinned and tapped the side of her helmet, "She's some kind of Alliance Spook; she guided me here and kept an eye on me from above."

Shepard heard Alenko groan from behind her, while she herself felt her unease grow.

Alliance Spooks were never good news; especially during all out attacks like this. She had been happy when Anderson had told her that there would be two Alliance SF operators on the ground; and had that happiness crushed when Anderson had informed her that they would not be operating with her.

"What's her name?" Shepherd finally asked.

"She calls herself Brooks; say hello Brooks." Williams replied.

"_Hello Brooks." _A woman said over their comms; _"In all seriousness, it's an honor to meet you Lt. Commander Shepard."_

"Good to hear I have a fan with Alliance intel." Shepard grumbled, her experiences with Akuze still fresh in her mind. She still had the nightmares, and without her boyfriend she found herself a little… restless.

"_I resent that, I'm down here sticking my neck out like the rest of you. Oh by the way, you have a squad of Batarians approaching your position from the north-west."_ Brooks said, sounding almost bored.

Shepard whipped her Assault Rifle around, immediately spotting four Batarians cresting the hill. She immediately shot the squad leader in the head before he even had a chance to react; while Alenko and Williams gunned down the other two that had been flanking him.

The fourth stood there dumbly; and before the three person squad could finish him off, his head exploded.

Shepard blinked, she hadn't heard the shot; nor had she seen where the slug that killed him came from. _"Ah… good to see the long range skills my DI drilled into me haven't gotten rusty. Listen, the Batarians have dug themselves in around the beacon; and they aren't taking any slaves from the looks of it. LC, you need to secure that beacon." _

"She's right ma'am, they get that beacon; everything will have been for nothing." Williams pointed out. "The dig site is just over that ridge; but the Batarians have got a death grip on it, it's practically suicide."

Alenko checked his heat sink; "Makes no sense, why would the Batarians risk open war like this; all for one beacon."

"I guess whatever must be on that beacon is so powerful; it makes all the risks of war worth it in their eyes." Shepard said.

"_And remember, these are 'Pirates' not Hegemony Batarians. A real big fuckin difference apparently." _Brooks chimed in. _"I estimate about two dozen Pirates around the dig site, but there is a chink in their defenses; only a small squad is covering this approach. I'm marking it on your HUDs."_

A waypoint finder pinged on their visors; leading to a spot on the opposite side of the ridge.

"_Either sneak your way in and let the militia and Alliance deal with the rest later; or go loud and kill them all now, your choice commander."_

Shepard weighed her options; as much as she wanted to make the Batarians pay for what they were doing, that was secondary. Killing the Batarians and drawing their attention would only waste their time; they needed to get to that Beacon.

"Saddle up Marines; let's get that Beacon."

* * *

"I remember there being a lot more pirates here the last time I was here." Williams grumbled as she kicked over a dead Batarian.

"And I'm pretty sure the Beacon is supposed to be here too, but it isn't." Alenko said, looking at the pit where the Beacon used to be.

"They probably moved it and took the majority of their forces with them; these guys are not their first rate soldiers. These are ash and trash conscripts they left behind to slow anyone with experience down; and probably to trick them into thinking the Beacon is still here." Shepard mused.

The stealth approach had worked initially, but as soon as they entered the inner perimeter it tripped an alarm; and all the pirates came running. Had they been as well equipped and well trained as the regular Batarian army, they all might have died right then and there.

But Shepherds luck seemed to have held out for once.

"Brooks, any idea when and where they might have moved it?" Shepard asked.

"_Sorry Commander, it's shielded from my drones view; but I do see a decent sized cluster of pirates approaching the space port. They might have taken it there." _The Spook replied.

"Thanks, keep an eye out and keep me updated." She ordered before closing the channel. The Spook had been surprisingly helpful, which was a pleasant change of pace for once. But Jane hadn't lived through as much as she had from just trusting every single person throwing themselves at her saying they wanted to help.

Especially Spooks; Shepard was just waiting for Brooks to screw them over in some way.

"Nihlus, Bad news; we've cleared the dig site, but the beacons not here. We think that it's probably been moved to a different location on the planet." She said.

"_Unfortunate but expected; the space port is nearby, and if I were trying to get it off world that's where I would go. I'll try and sneak my way in, meet you there Commander." _The Turian replied.

Shepards mouth twisted into a grimace; as disrespectful as it may seem, she had to say it, "Spectre, this feels off. Like someone is just baiting us; how would the Batarians even know this damned Beacon was here? As much as I hate to say it Spectre, we have a leak."

To her surprise, the Turian didn't seem at all offended; he just gave a tired sigh, _"I've been thinking much the same way. And of the list of potential suspects, only one makes enough sense. But I don't want to say too much until I have more evidence._

_We'll discuss this back on the ship, right now we need to focus on recovering that Beacon._

_I'm approaching the tram station now; I'll keep an eye out for the Beacon and let you know if I find it. See you in a bit Commander."_

"Understood Spectre, out."

* * *

Nihlus gave a soft chuckle as he closed the comm link; his opinion of Shepard improving by a healthy amount.

However much the woman disliked spy craft and spooks, she certainly knew how to think like one. It had taken her minutes to think of a potential leak within the Spectres, and she didn't even really know any of them to begin with.

For his part, Nihlus had needed his anonymous benefactor to jostle his brain into even considering the possibility of a traitor in their ranks. This was one of the biggest acts of treason in galactic history if his suspicions were correct.

He tapped his audio piece; "Garth are you still there?" He asked.

"_Still here Spectre, whatcha need?"_

"Is there do you see anyone in the tram station up ahead?"

"_A moment" _Nihlus sat down while his new friend checked his drone. Normally he would be very suspicious of this kind of help, but he really couldn't afford to be picky; and the mysterious human had guided him away or warned him about several ambushes and patrols. So the man clearly wanted him alive at least.

"_Spectre, what does Saren look like?" _Nihlus wracked his brains for a moment, but Garth interrupted him before he could respond; _"Is his face plate bone white, with no facial markings, wears grey armor, and does he have a cybernetic left arm?"_

Nihlus flared his mandibles in both dismay and surprise; "You describe his appearance perfectly for a human; and how, might I ask, do you know what he looks like?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"_Because I'm looking right at him; what do you want me to do? Pop his head off?" _

"No! We only have suspicions that he might be the traitor. For all we know he's undercover with the pirates, I did run into a few Turian corpses on the way here." Nihlus exclaimed; as certain as he was that his old friend had betrayed them, he still needed evidence to prove it.

Garth was silent for a moment, and then said; _"Ok, I got an idea; but I don't think you're gonna like it very much."_

* * *

"This is not going to work…" Nihlus whispered, using all of his training and experience to keep up a cool and collected exterior.

"_It will work; just don't take your eyes off him until I give you the word." _Garth reassured him.

Nihlus entered the building, pistol aimed in Sarens general direction. He had also turned on his transmitter so that it was transmitting to Garth, "Saren, what are you doing here my friend." Saren whirled around, talons whipping to his pistol; before he relaxed upon seeing that it was Nihlus.

"I could ask the same of you Nihlus." Saren replied, no emotion leaking into his voice.

"Classified old friend; but I suppose I could let you in on it now that you're here. I was supposed to be evaluating the Humans Spectre candidate." Nihlus informed him, testing his reaction.

"Ah yes, the _humans_; tell me, has this one failed as horribly as the last one did? I see you here but not them, honestly how hard can recovering a Beacon be?" He asked, slight distaste leaking into his harmonics, and showing no surprise at the mention of Shepherds evaluation; and inadvertently tipping his hand to Nihlus and Garth.

"_Racist bastard; okay, stall him and look at the wreckage in the center of the station. Let's see what he does when you take your attention away from him." _The human said.

Nihlus didn't react to neither Garths instructions or to Sarens blatantly racist sneer; and lowered his pistol and turned his attention to the pile of crates instead. He knew he was putting his life into the hands of a complete stranger, but if Garth had wanted him dead; he wouldn't have even bothered to warn him about Saren.

"Come now Saren, you can hardly blame them for this unexpected attack-"

"_OH SHIT! MOVE!" _Garth screamed, nearly blasting out his ear drums; but Nihlus dropped to all fours and rolled away from his spot, pistol swinging around to bear on his old friend.

Saren had been caught off guard by Nihlus' sudden move, and had missed the first shot; hitting the crates instead. A scream came from the pile of crates; but Nihlus didn't pay it any mind, he was too busy trying not to get his head blown off by his former friend.

Saren snarled as Nihlus drew his shotgun and fired; his shields flaring as the cluster of slugs slammed into his chest.

"Garth do you have a shot?!" Nihlus shouted, sprinting to cover as Saren drew his Assault Rifle and started spraying at him.

"_Dammit! I'm a little (BANG!) busy at the moment!" _Came Garth's strained reply.

Nihlus released a string of very colorful curses as a squad of Pirates flooded into the station. Their whole plan had hinged on Garth disabling Saren if the Spectre had indeed turned out to be the traitor. Apparently, either they had gotten unlucky; or Saren had anticipated it, and had his people jump Garth, while he himself dealt with Nihlus.

"You should have kept to yourself Nihlus; you're dealing with forces that are far more powerful than you can possibly handle." Saren said, his voice worming its way into Nihlus' head.

Knowing better than to respond, he sprinted from the crates to behind a nearby pillar; just as a Batarian hosed the area down. Nihlus peeked around the pillar and fired; hitting the Batarian right in the head, killing him instantly.

A slug punched through the pillar right where his head had been just seconds prior, prompting Nihlus to drop to a crouch. "You are making a mistake Nihlus, that human that's been helping you; who does he really work for. The Person that employs him is not exactly trustworthy." Saren called out.

One Batarian sprinted into his peripheral view; screaming "You Council fucks are dead you hear me?!"

Nihlus didn't even have to look as he drew his pistol and shot the idiot in the head. He had lucked out since the Batarians Saren had employed were pirates as opposed to regular army. They weren't very smart for the most part; and most of the smart pirates were former spec ops or regular army that had been contracted to bolster the Pirate fleets quality.

"Garth, status?" Nihlus whispered, listening to the pounding footsteps of the remaining two Batarians trying to get the drop on him.

_"…"_

"Shit…" Nihlus cursed, either he was occupied, or he was dead; in either case, Nihlus was on his own until Shepard got here.

_WHAP!_

Nihlus's shoulder jerked backwards as one of the Batarians shot him; having flanked him while he had been trying to get ahold of Garth. Nihlus growled and fired back; scoring another headshot on the bastard.

"Shepard come in! Saren's a traitor! Saren's a traitor!" He shouted, just as the last Batarian surprised him and jammed his shotgun right into Nihlus's abdomen.

Only skill and quick reaction time saved Nihlus's life; the veteran Spectre twisted his body away from the barrel of the gun, while at the same time he batted it away with the butt of his pistol. It was this action that prevented his death, by redirecting the Pirates aim to just below Nihlus's ribcage, and just to the side.

_BOOM!_

Nihlus staggered back, even as he unloaded his pistol into the Pirates head and chest; he clutched his side as blood poured from the injury, grimacing and fighting down a scream of pain.

"I'm not the traitor Nihlus, for trying to protect Galactic peace." Saren said.

Stars exploded across Nihlus's vision as something hard and heavy smashed into the back of his head. He flew forward, rolling as he hit the ground; the shotgun wound in his side leaving a blood trail.

"You're the traitor, working with a madman and his minions trying to start a war." Saren growled, his echoing voice made it sound like he was all around the tram yard.

Nihlus felt blood trickle down the back of his head and into his fringe. He gasped, trying to form words; but found himself unable to do so. His vision blurred, either due to his head injury; or from blood loss, he wasn't sure.

Nihlus sluggishly shifted his head to the right, and spotted his pistol; and in the back of his mind, a voice was urging him to grab it. He tried to crawl, and found his limbs unresponsive; but was able to make some progress to it.

He didn't even make it halfway there before a grey armored boot smashed down on his arm; breaking it with a loud _CRACK!_

Nihlus howled in pain, as his vision started to blur even further.

"Nihlus, look at me." He heard a very familiar voice say.

Nihlus turned his head; seeing the greyish-white face plate of his old friend staring back at him. Nihlus knew that it was the end as Saren raised his pistol to point it right between Nihlus's eyes.

"You have a nice long sleep old friend; I'll take it from here." Nihlus could see that Saren meant for them to be reassuring almost, the regret tinting his eyes. That just made Nihlus angrier; and tried to scream one last warning into his comms, one final curse at the traitor that stood over him.

But no sound came out, much to his confusion; in fact, he hadn't made a sound at all ever since Saren had hit him in the back of the head.

Saren waited a moment to see if Nihlus would say something, then shook his head and raised the pistol and squeezed the trigger.

_BANG!_

The round slammed into Sarens hand and sent his pistol flying out of his talons; and crippling it in the process. Saren hissed and whirled around, trying to see where the shot had come from.

_BANG!_

Another round punched through his barriers; but didn't quite penetrate all the way through his armor. Saren looked down, expecting to find a cluster of miniscule pellets lodged in his armor; like normal whenever a slug failed to go all the way through a person's armor.

To his surprise, a metal slug almost as thick as his little talon was lodged in his chest piece.

_BANG!_

A third slug smashed into Sarens mechanical arm; tearing through wires, artificial muscles, and metal. Saren cursed and retreated; fleeing towards a tram that had been sitting and waiting.

_BANG!_

This fourth slug slammed into the metal frame of the doorway leading into the tram; just centimeters from Sarens head, and sending out sparks as it ricocheted into his side just below the ribcage, failing again to penetrate Sarens armor.

Nihlus watched these events unfold wordlessly, still unable to speak; but sending his unending thanks to Garth for coming through at the last second.

_I need to get me one of those guns that he uses; it punched through Sarens armor way better than any of mine could even hope to do. _Nihlus thought appreciatively.

"_Spectre come in! Do you read me?" _Garth shouted into his audio piece; his voice oddly muffled, and he sounded out of breath. Nihlus would have responded, but he felt… floaty; weightless almost. He opened his mandibles to say something, but like before; no sound came out.

"_Shit! Spectre you need to stay awake if you can hear me; help is on the way, just stay awake." _Garth said, sounding almost like he was pleading; his voice sounded strained as well, and he was audibly panting. Had he been wounded as well? _"Listen to me soldier, you can't sleep yet; you gotta job to do, just stay awake man. That's a direct order."_

Nihlus would have laughed; an Alliance spook giving him orders, yeah that was a worth a good chuckle. But, being the good Turian that he was, he wasn't one to disobey orders like that; but his eyes felt so heavy.

He slowly closed them, and took a breath.

"_Nihlus… Nihlus… _NIHLUS!" Nihlus opened his eyes dully.

From his point of view, he had closed his eyes for just a second, and when he had; he had been all alone in the tram yard with only dead Batarians for company. Now he found himself staring right into his protégé's face; he wasn't good with human facial expressions, but he could tell that she was concerned.

"Nihlus, you're hurt really bad; you've lost a lot of blood, and sustained a serious head injury. I need you to answer me, in some way; what did you say about Saren. I heard you say something about Saren and hunting a traitor. What did you say?" Her voice was cool and commanding, but held an underlying current of steel.

He tried to speak, but like all the other times; no sound came from his mouth.

"LC, he might've lost all ability to speak for the time being; this is a pretty serious head wound, I'm surprised he isn't dead." A male said from next to him; Alenko, if he remembered correctly.

Nihlus saw his omnitool on the ground behind Shepherd, likely having been removed to check for anything important; and he blearily raised his arm, pointing his index talon at the omnitool.

Shepard looked behind her, and saw what he was pointing at. She raised her arm and opened her hand; a biotic field surrounding her and the omnitool, which zipped into her open palm. She quickly handed it to him, and Nihlus slowly typed out what he knew would likely be his final message; either on this planet, or in this life, he wasn't sure. It was up to the Spirits whether or not he survived now.

"He's los_ing conscuissness… ed… idica… …evac!" _Nihlus closed his eyes, allowing the land of dreams to overtake him.

* * *

Shepard stared at the last message her mentor had typed to her; the last warning to her that he could manage before slipping into unconsciousness.

"No good Commander, he's slipped into a coma; he's gonna need surgery within the next few hours if he wants any chance of waking up again."

"Dammit…" Shepard hissed as she looked at Nihlus's last message.

_"Spectre Saren Traitor"_ That was all he had been able to type on his omnitool before he had slipped into unconsciousness. This already FUBAR'd mission had just slipped even further into the "thoroughly fucked" territory now.

Sighing, Shepard tapped her earpiece, "Brooks did you catch all that?" she asked.

"_I did Commander; and I'm sorry to tell you that I won't be able to assist you any longer." _She replied.

Shepard scowled, "You goddamned Spooks are fucking me over again?" She demanded.

There was a long pause.

"_I found my partner; he's heavily injured, with at least ten or twelve dead Batarian Pirates and Turian mercs around him. I think he was covering Nihlus like I was helping you; and they got jumped. I need to extract him right now, or else he might not make it." _Brooks replied, her voice strained.

Shepards scowl faded, "I'm sorry Brooks, that was-"

"_Forget it; the Normandy has already sent a shuttle down with medical teams on board. You need to chase after those Pirates before they get away with that Beacon; I can watch over Nihlus until they get here. After that, Garth and I will be extracted on one of the Prowlers we have nearby." _She replied coolly. After a few seconds, she sighed; _"I'll probably never run into you again Commander; so for what it's worth, it was an honor to help you. Now get after that Beacon."_

Shepard opened and closed her mouth, not really sure what to say. Then she saw the glint from the nearby Cliffside, and turned on her visors zoom function. There lay a human in mysterious armor that seemed to blend in with the ground around it.

Dead Batarians surrounded the person; and the rifle was of a make Shepard did not recognize.

Nonetheless, she recognized friendly over watch when she saw it; and gave a quick salute to the person that was presumably Brooks. "Good luck Brooks, and I hope your partner pulls through."

"_He and Nihlus both will Commander, now go!"_

Shepard nodded and turned to Alenko and Williams, who had listened to the whole exchange; "Let's get that Beacon." She said, before boarding the nearby tram to the spaceport.

* * *

Brooks watched them go, before pulling up the drone feed.

Beyond herself and Garth on the cliff; and Nihlus down in the tram yard, there were no longer any live targets in the area. _I guess Powell got caught in the crossfire during Nihlus' and Sarens fight_. Personally, with how much canon had been thrown off the rails today; she couldn't really care less.

The spires that made husks had been absent; instead replaced by Batarians already beginning to implant slaves with their mind control devices, which the squad had put a stop to. And the Mad Doctor and his minder had been nowhere to be seen; in fact, Brooks had a sneaking suspicion that they were dead or captured.

This whole mission was fucked in so many ways.

She turned her attention to Garth, who lay face down in the dirt behind where she lay; five different bullet wounds throughout his body along with several nicks and grazes on top of that.

She had reviewed the footage from his CrossCOMM; apparently, he and Nihlus had set a trap for Saren. But Saren must have either anticipated such a trap, or they just been flat out unlucky; because right as they were about to spring the trap, Garth had been jumped by two squads of Pirates and mercs.

He had fought through them, but they had the element of surprise.

His Exo-Armor was the only reason he had still been alive by the time she had reached him; and pumping him full of medi-gel, mummifying him with gauze, and hooking up a blood bag to him were the only reasons he was alive now.

It had been sheer willpower that had enabled him to fire off those four shots that had saved Nihlus and forced Saren to retreat from the area. After Saren had left, Garth had tried to keep himself awake by keeping Nihlus awake. It kind of worked, in the regard that both had passed out within a minute of each other.

When Brooks had found them, she had frantically called Shepard and told her that Nihlus was critically injured and needed assistance. Alenko had called the _Normandy_, while Brooks had called the Prowler _Helios_ for immediate extraction.

They would pick up Garth first, and put him in the medical bay; and then wait for the _Normandy_'s medical shuttle to CASEVAC Nihlus away before they cut and run. Nihlus had to be the witness to the Council, since the GST did not exist.

As far as Nihlus and Shepard and the rest of the ground team were concerned; Garth and Brooks were Alliance Intelligence, nothing more.

Brooks checked the ETA she had been given until the _Helios _would arrived. It was already on its way down, and was due in a few minutes. She just prayed that they would make in time; Garths life, and by extension Nihlus's, depended on it.

* * *

**Constant Space Port E6, Eden Prime; 1105 Hours**

Saren swore, smashing his mechanical fist into the Beacon.

It was another one of those useless "All is Safe" Beacons; one of the ones that showed the Protheans, in their dying moments, firing their ultimate weapon. But they never showed what the weapon did, nor what the last of the Protheans did with it before they went extinct.

And most concerning, they never showed who they had used it against.

"Useless fucking thing; I had to kill my best friend for this?!" He screamed, shooting its central core several times.

As much as Saren did not want to admit it, killing Nihlus had shaken him to his core. But it was for the greater good; knocking those damned humans down to where they belonged. This attack was still worth it, even if the Beacon had proven to be useless.

The Systems Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony would be at each other's throats.

Things were already tense due to Admiral Gar'dawar's occupation of the Independent Arab world of Tajicstan; and while it may not have been a sponsored or authorized colony, the Systems Alliance still heavily protested the occupation.

The Hegemony and the Alliance had, for all intents and purposes, been waging a proxy war for the past ten or so years. General "Unconditional Surrender" Grant, as many liked to call the human general; had been rumored to have been sending Alliance SF to Tajicstan, for the expressed purpose of training them in actual asymmetrical warfare.

It strengthened the Alliance and gave them more battle hardened soldiers capable of facing the Hierarchy in open warfare. If he wasn't careful, and the humans discovered his machinations; then the Turian Hierarchy would find themselves in deep trouble.

"Well, what's on the damned thing?" a familiar voice asked.

Saren turned to face the former Batarian Spectre turned Black Operator, Ka'hairal Balak.

Saren scowled in anger; "Useless, it's a 'Safety' Beacon." He informed his _partner._ How he loathed to deal with such scum; but Black Operations was a messy business. And however much he hated Balak, he knew he could trust him.

They both shared the same end goal.

Balak scoffed in reply, "Another dead end Saren, your wasting everyone's time with these things."

"Not a dead end Balak; we have still accomplished several other key objectives with this attack." Saren retorted.

"Hmph, I fail to see how bringing my people and the Alliance to the brink of war accomplishes anything." Balak huffed.

"You fail to see the big picture Balak, the Alliance will not dare risk a war with you; and your own High Chancellor has no knowledge that this attack took place. This is a pirate attack, plain and simple; one the Alliance cannot hope to capitalize on." Saren replied. "Now then, set the charges and destroy this place; neither of us were ever here."

* * *

**Constant Space Port E6, Eden Prime; 1113 Hours**

"Worst tram ride ever." Alenko quipped as they stepped out and onto the platform.

Fighting through hordes of Batarians and other Pirates that had been left behind to guard the approach to the spaceport had not been fun to deal with; especially the snipers, since the three of them only had assault rifles those had been particularly nasty to deal with.

As soon as the Tram pulled up and they stepped off of it, Shepard found her HUD bombarded with bomb warnings; Williams spotted them first.

"Bombs, all over the place!" She exclaimed while drawing her gun.

"Batarians must have set Demolition charges to stop any pursuers!" Alenko shouted, rushing to the first bomb to try and defuse it.

"Williams! Cover him, I'll try and find the others." Shepard ordered, already running up the exit ramp; glad that she had made sure the entire ground team had read up on basic EOD bomb refusal guides when they had started their deployment.

Although she had never thought that those skill would be needed for something as important as this. The cardinal rule of EOD was, "If you can afford the time, use a robot to take it away and blow it up in a safe are."

Not exactly an option here; hopefully they wouldn't blow up in her face.

* * *

**Constant Space Port E6, Eden Prime; 1118 Hours**

Shepard yanked the last wire out of the last bomb, the one closest to the Beacon; the beeping from the bomb slowed to a crawl before ceasing completely. The three of them simultaneously slumped in relief.

Thankfully, there hadn't been too many Batarians left behind as a rearguard to protect the bombs. But they had still burned through precious seconds that could have been spent defusing bombs.

Had she not forced Alenko to brush up on bomb de-fusel with the rest of the Marines on board, Shepard was quite certain that there would not have been enough time. As it was, Alenko had dealt with the first bomb, and the one on the opposite side of the docks; Shepherd had taken care of the one closest to the entrance ramp, and the one next to the Beacon.

She had disarmed it with only seconds to spare.

Shepard tossed some of the tools she had used to the side and stood up, looking back at the Beacon. It had very clearly been damaged, and it was glowing; with some signs that it had been tampered with.

She grimaced, _Not much I can do about it, I don't know jack shit about these things_; "Normandy-Actual, this is Shepard the Beacon is secure. Be advised, it appears to have been damaged and tampered with and may be unsafe."

"_Understood Commander, the Captains not going to be happy about that; but it's good that you're safe ma'am. We have Nihlus on board and he is currently in surgery; he'll make it, but he has potential brain damage so we don't know for sure._

_I'm pulling into the space port now." _Joker replied.

While she had been talking with Joker, Williams and Alenko had been staring at the Beacon; "It's amazing, who would've thought that Eden Prime had a working Beacon." Alenko murmered.

Williams grimaced, turning to face Alenko "All this death and destruction for a glowing metal poll, excuse me for not being very impressed LT." She growled before turning back to face the Beacon.

Her expression turned to confusion, and she took a step towards it, "It wasn't glowing or humming like that when they dug it up…" She noted, tilting her head; "The Batarians must have activated it." As she took another step, the humming grew louder; and the Beacons glow multiplied and started flashing.

Williams tried to backpedal away, but found herself caught in the Beacons pull; she tried to stop, but found that she couldn't move her legs. "Sirs! Help!" She exclaimed.

Alenko tried to yank her back with his biotics, but found that it had no effect whatsoever. Shepard took the brute force option, and football tackled Williams out of the Beacons pull; getting herself caught in the process.

Like a puppet, Shepard found herself unable to move; her emerald green eyes bulging as visions began to invade her mind. Death, destruction, endless carnage; things that would make even the most hardened veteran puke in disgust and horror, and collapse in despair at the hopelessness of it all.

Then, like a beam of light; the scene changed to show a weapon, a weapon so deadly that it wiped out the cause of all the horrors she had been shown.

"Shepard!" Williams cried out.

"Don't touch her! Stay back!" Alenko bellowed.

Despite all she had seen; the last vision that assaulted her mind brought a smile of relief to Shepards face, though she did not know why. Then Beacon shut off, dropping her; and like a puppet that had its strings cut, Shepard crumpled to the ground.

Then the Beacon exploded, throwing all three human to the ground.

Shepard didn't even have time to process them images before she slammed the back of her head into the ground; knocking her out. But had she been able to, she would have been crying with relief.

* * *

**A/N: What did Shepard and Saren see? What could cause Shepard to cry for joy, and cause Saren endless frustration and relief at the same time?**

**Guess you'll have to wait to find out.**

**Okay, so I'm gonna do something new here; if you have ideas and want some GST side stories, PM me with your one-shot story ideas. Remember, the GST is made up by us; mostly Mass Effect fans and Fanfic readers. **

**So if you have a story about your more colorful missions in the GST, we'd like to know about them.**

**Next chapter will be mostly Nomad centric; and what I mean by that, is that he will have the most POV parts in the chapter. This will loosely follow canon for a bit; in that much of the first part of this story will take place at canon locations, and have mostly canon characters. **

**But at some point, Canon is going to take a complete dump and call it a day. ****Quite frankly I'm excited for it; and I hope you guys enjoy it, because most of my fun comes from writing the divergent parts of this story. **

**I find the canon components that we all know, such as the tram ride and the bomb defuse sections, to be an utter chore to write; because we all know how it goes down. For every good and unique fanfic, you always come across sections that cover canon so poorly or are so generically written that your mind shuts down and you just end up skimming through it. **

**That's why I mostly focused on Nihlus's, Ash's, and Brooks' POV's for this chapter and the last.**

**Now I did leave little hints here and there that all is not as it seems with Saren; I'm taking this story in a direction I don't think you guys are expecting me to go. But if you think you've figured it out, PM with your theories, and I shall debunk them or give "No Comment" comments. **

**Please don't post your theories in your reviews, because that spoils it for others.**

**Now then, I would absolutely love a TV tropes page. (Please!)**

**Please leave a review and tell me what y'all think.**

**PM me if you think you would like some GST side stories; but you have to come up with and write them, I'll just give them the green light to be posted in the anthology I'll set up if the idea is popular enough.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	12. Allah's Wrath

**February 21****st**** 2183 CE/AD, 0132 hours**

_/Ambassador Donnel Udnia (DU) has entered the Chat_

_/Major General Hyrum Grant (HG) has entered the Chat_

_/Vice Admiral Steven Hackett (SH) has entered the Chat_

_/Captain David Anderson (DA) has entered the Chat_

_DU:__ Report Anderson._

_DA:__ The Beacon has been destroyed, and both Spectre Kryick and Lt. Cmdr. Shepard have been injured. Both are currently in a coma, although with Shepherd it is for unknown reasons. She did interact with the Beacon in an attempt to protect Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams from getting pulled towards it; and got ensnared by it instead. _

_Spectre Kryick was attacked by a traitor; according to the accounts of Staff Lieutenant Alenko and Gunny Williams. He claimed that he was attacked by a Spectre; one Saren Arterius._

_DU:__ Are you sure that isn't your personal biases interfering Captain?_

_DA:__ Nihlus left a written message on his omnitool for Shepherd just before losing consciousness. It said _"Spectre Saren Traitor."

_DU:__ Hm… Definitely something I can work with; I'll try and arrange a meeting with the council. What about Casualties? I can try and play the sympathy card with the at least._

_SH:__ Several thousand civilians are dead, wounded, or missing. The 212th Marine Reconnaissance Battalion has 99% casualties, all dead; Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams is the sole survivor of the Battalion._

_The Orbital Defense Platform was lost with all hands; half Skell Tech employees, and half military. But it did take out the Pirate Dreadnaught and two Cruisers before the Batarians destroyed it._

_But my fleet took no casualties, and about a quarter of the pirate fleet managed to escape._

_To my knowledge, they took no slaves; which was a bit of a surprise. My best guess is that they only wanted that Beacon, which begs the Question; what was on it?_

_HG:__ Why don't you ask Shepherd or Saren? Oh wait you can't; one will deny that they were ever there in the first place, and the other is currently unconscious in the _Normandy_'s sick bay._

_DU:__ My my, someone is in a bad mood; I wonder why? Is it because your people interfered when they weren't supposed to?_

_HG:__ Don't give me that shit Udina; if Eden Prim had been properly garrisoned, this could have been avoided; Or better yet, if the Hegemony had been removed from power after the blitz and Torfan. _

_DU:__ You're in no position to talk Grant; what you did at Torfan made it completely-_

_/Major August Lee (AL) has entered the Chat_

_AL:__ Am I interrupting something?_

_SH:__ Hello Major, what's the issue since you're joining our call when you should be sleeping._

_AL:__ You mean besides the fact that I'm working off of 3 hours of sleep, just got off a call with my daughter and her honorary aunt to explain why my best friend is currently undergoing surgery because he was at a planet that was attacked, and I am only an hour away from the citadel and dealing with serious FTL lag, and I don't drink coffee? I'm doing fine._

_DU:__ I'm sorry, who are you?_

_HG:__ One of my boys Udina, what's the word from Obram?_

_AL:__ Not good, the suspected EA terrorists we've been tracking have disappeared. Worse, Obram and all the other Batarian Case Officers can't leave their safe houses to do field work; because there are currently mass anti-Batarian protests all across the station._

_DU:__ I haven't heard about this._

_DA:__ Turn on your Holo-Screen Udina, it's all over the news._

_AL:__ Hello Captain, what's your ETA to the Citadel?_

_DA:__ 14 hours._

_AL:__ Ok, I'll try and get in touch with the Station Chief and see if I can't get some feelers out there; try and see what the hell Saren has been doing and why he was on Eden Prime, if he was even there._

_HG:__ Do it, and get in touch with the other Fireteams on the Station. The rest of Kingslayer should arrive within a few hours. _

_AL:__ Alright, once I get everything set up; I'll get some sleep and check back in, see y'all in a few hours._

_/Major August Lee (AL) has Disconnected_

_SH:__ I should be going as well gentlemen; I need to organize relief efforts for Eden Prime, call me if something new comes up._

_/Vice Admiral Steven Hackett (SH) has Disconnected_

_HG:__ Thousands dead at the hands of Batarian "Pirates"… and the Council does nothing; makes me fucking sick._

_DU:__ It's called politics Grant; if you ever came out of your little spy cave then you would get how the real world works. If you'll excuse me, the Council is calling._

_/Ambassador Donnel Udnia (DU) has Disconnected_

_HG:__ Did… did he just tell me that politics is how the real world works?_

_DA:__ Yes, I believe he just did. Don't read too much into it Hyrum, he's just a pompous dick._

_HG:__ Hmph… I've had it up to here with this proxy war, politicking bullshit; I may be a spy, but I was an SF operator and a Soldier first. We all know war is inevitable, why don't we just get it over with already and deal with the Batarian threat._

_DA:__ We aren't ready, and the Parliament would throw a massive hissy fit and remove all of us if even the slightest mention of a possibility of war were to come up. They may hate Slavery, but war of any kind is unpopular; and those bureaucrats love their seats of power too much to do the right thing._

_In any case; I have to go, Dr. Chakwas just messaged me to tell me that Shepard is waking up. I'll be in touch Grant._

_/Captain David Anderson (DA) has Disconnected_

_HG:__ If only we could take the gloves off and fight._

_/Major General Hyrum Grant (HG) has Disconnected_

* * *

**The Citadel, Docking Station A-5; February 21st 2183 CE/AD, 0236 hours**

I stepped off the _Selene_ and onto the docking station, running a hand through my hair before putting on my Service Cap; pushing up my glasses and rubbing my eyes, the bags under them were plain to see.

All Ghosts received gene mods like the Marines, but even they had their limits.

My vision for example, was right on the edge of being good enough for me to not need glasses all the time; but bad enough that I still needed them to be able to drive safely and shoot accurately over long distances.

Endurance was another; sure I could run 24 hours and only stop for a drink, but I would be completely mentally exhausted. Of course the conversation with Garths wife had not helped matters.

She was a sweet woman, but not a traveler; so Garth and I had to watch what we said around her and the kids. But our work was so secretive that whenever we clammed up as she walked by, she just assumed we were talking about classified spy shit; and didn't question it.

Garth had been one of the first "Official" recruits into the GST, having been an Army Ranger before he came to this universe; and had become one of our key instructors for training new Ghosts.

He and I had gotten along great, he had been here for five years by the time I recruited him; and he had started a family by that point. June loved her "Aunt and Uncle Mattice", and I let her stay with them whenever I was on a mission.

I was only 24, and already a Major; not the youngest to attain the rank, but still pretty young.

In the US army during the 2010's and 2020's, the average age for someone to attain their Majority had been 31. But that was in a peacetime Army, volunteers only, and with very little happening in the world at the time; no real chances for someone to prove themselves and get promoted in the field, and not enough positions for the rank of Major to go around.

I grabbed my bag, which contained my spare uniforms; while I kept my Ghost Bandana in my pocket.

My Rifle and my Exo-Armor would have to be smuggled in by Obrams people, but that didn't worry me any; this wasn't my first time at the Citadel, and they had smuggled far larger things through security.

I shivered, as a fake breeze blew by me.

One thing that amazed me about the citadel was that it had its own weather cycles and seasons. Whoever had originally built the Citadel had clearly intended for it to feel like home as much as possible.

It rained, snowed, misted and everything in between. It was why I was wearing the brown-green Overcoat, gloves, and white scarf stepping off the heated _Selene._ It was around 28 degrees; or -2 for everyone else, since the imperial system had been phased out for close to a century.

And it was snowing at the moment.

There were dozens of people moving about, and my uniform as usual turned a few looks; mainly because it was rare to see Army officers this far away from Systems Alliance territory. Ever since Grant had pressured the Senate for more funding for the Army, one of the first measures the Prime Minister and the Minister of War had enacted was the standardization of equipment and uniforms.

Now the Pinks and Greens were the standard Dress uniform.

I made my way to the C-SEC security checkpoint, eyeing up the two Humans, two Asari, and two Turians; and once I was sure they weren't a threat, I set my bag on the scanner.

"Do you have any weapons Major?" The human officer asked; the others keeping an eye on the crowded docks, but also on me to make sure I didn't try anything.

"Yes, my pistol in my shoulder holster under my left arm; and my revolver in my bag." I replied.

The Officer nodded while the two Turians gave me sideways glances. It was quite common for Systems Alliance Service members to have weapons, but most kept them in their luggage or kept them in plain sight while wearing armor.

But someone wearing the Army Dress Greens and having a gun on his person, now that was unusual.

The human officer simply nodded, and said; "Please take it out slowly and unload it, and run it through the scanners please. The revolver can stay where it is." He shivered in the cold, and put his hands to his ears; trying in vain to warm them up.

I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told; it was just like going through airport security, although it was a bit more efficient and professional. And they regarded me with less suspicion since I was an Army Soldier.

The Animosity the Navy and Marines had with the Army did not extend into the civilian sector, thankfully. So that meant I didn't have to deal with some puffed up jarhead that thought they needed to prove themselves by picking on a small Army guy that looked more like an accountant than an SF operator.

My small size was a blessing and a curse in that regard, no one saw me as a threat.

I pulled out my Hi-Power Browning, hitting the button on the side to eject the mag; then pulled the slide back and ejected the round in the chamber, before pointing the barrel up and pulling the trigger.

_Click!_

I set the pistol down, then bent down and picked up the dropped bullet; sliding it back into the magazine, and then I set the mag down next to the gun. Then I reached into my jacket and pulled out the two spares I carried and set them down as well.

"Wow, haven't seen these in a long time; even the Army had phased them out shortly before Shanxi." The officer said, looking at them with admiration.

I shrugged; "She still works and packs a punch. Sure it takes a few more shots to bring down barriers; but these things are far easier to maintain and conceal in my opinion. Plus, you can't hack or EMP something that's entirely mechanical." I pointed out.

The officer nodded, sending the stuff through the scanner; while I stepped through the detectors.

Nothing set off the alarm, and they handed me my things back. After telling them to have a good day, I set my eyes on the flash of green close to the exit ramp; and started walking towards them, making sure to button my overcoat back up.

The woman was dressed the same way, except that she had Sergeant's stripes on her arms; and instead of an Officers/Senior NCO's Service Cap, she had the Garrison Cap on instead. I spied her name tag, and took in her Philippian features; "_Pelayo_" was what it said.

I walked up to her, and she immediately saluted.

After a moment, I returned it; "Sergeant Katrina 'Brooks' Pelayo…" I said coolly.

She swallowed, but stood firm; not an easy feat since she was three inches shorter than me, "Major Lee Sir!" She replied.

I stared her down for a moment; squinting like I normally did, even behind my glasses. After a moment of glaring, she started to squirm uncomfortably; and finally she exclaimed, "Fine, I'm sorry sir!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Sorry for what?" I asked.

"I disobeyed orders and I interfered." She said, looked down.

I stepped forward and got right in her face; "If you were anyone else kid, and if you weren't a Ghost; you would be in a heap of trouble." I growled.

Katrina cringed and looked down; at only 19, she was probably the youngest active duty Ghost we had deployed at the moment. I had been 21 by the time the GST had been legitimized by Parliament; and I had been the baby of the bunch.

I was only 24 now, but the past three and a half years of constant combat and dealing in the shit really made a difference in one's mentality. I really had debated actually making her a Ghost, as opposed to sending her to Obram and making her a Case Officer; but Garth had taken a liking to her, and took her under his wing. And I wasn't really inclined to confront him about it, since he tended to make the right calls.

"Don't ever fucking apologize for what you thought was the right call kid." I said.

Pelayo just kept her gaze low, clearly upset; and I sighed. Eden Prime had in fact been her first real mission; and she was used to following orders, not improvising on the fly and thinking for herself.

"Look, whether or not you made the right decision in helping Chief Williams; that's something only you and Garth can decide. But from my perspective and the Colonels, you made the right call; Grant will bitch and moan about it because he has to deal with the fallout of it, but I know deep down that he agrees.

He's a former Delta for Christ's sake; if he had been in the field with you, he would have applauded your quick thinking. Granted he would have preferred that you consult him and inform him of what you were doing.

And that's where my main issue, and probably Garths would have come from." I relented.

Pelayo looked back up at me, looking slightly better now; at least, not about to burst into tears. It was that damned Philippian heritage, she could look like a baby seal when she was upset; and it always made me feel like I was yelling at my dog, I just couldn't bring myself to stay mad at her.

"If it weren't for me, Garth wouldn't have split off and tried to help Nihlus." She muttered.

I just shook my head, "That was Garths call, not yours; you can't blame yourself for what he did." I replied.

She just looked down again.

"Alright, we can discuss this later; let's get to the GST station, and get all set up. I need some rest before I do anything else dammit. And it's cold as the Yukon for Christ sake; let's get inside before my balls get frozen off."

* * *

**The Citadel, GST Safe House; February 21st 2183 CE/AD, 0256 hours**

"How is he?" I asked Pelayo as we approached a non-descript looking apartment complex.

"He'll be fine after a week of bedrest, but knowing him; he's already up and wandering about the station." She replied, stopping at the entrance to the complex.

I pulled off my glove and hit a button, which read my thumbprint; and a light flashed as a hidden camera just above the scanner blinked on and processed my face. After a few seconds, the door unlocked; and I walked in, finding the place in its usual state.

Controlled Chaos.

The Complex had three floors, and the first floor was open door; everyone moved back and forth between each room, carrying actual paper and shuffling Intel between the rooms.

Each of the rooms represented a different arm of the Citadel; the room closest to the door being the office dedicated to everything that happened in the presidium area, since the apartment complex was in the upper ring.

In the back most room, closest to the stairwell, was the Station Chief's office.

I brushed snow off my shoulders and my cap as I walked down the hallway, making sure to avoid the analysts scampering back and forth between each of the sub-stations; they weren't military, so I didn't begrudge them for ignoring me or Pelayo.

I reached Obrams office and knocked on the doorframe.

The human Traveler turned Batarian looked up from his assorted papers with his upper two eyes, and grin split across his face. "August!" He exclaimed, shooting up from his desk and startling his secretary.

I smiled back as he shook my outstretched hand with both of his.

"It's good to see ya my friend; how are you doing?" He asked.

"Cold, tired, and I miss my daughter; but I'm okay otherwise." I replied, "How's your sister?"

"She's fine; most of the OG's are wandering around the station meeting with our contacts while she and I are cooped up in here waiting for the anti-Batarian sentiment to die down." He said jovially, gesturing to one of the plush chairs in his office.

I sat down with a loud grunt; rubbing my eyes and yawning, making sure to take off my overcoat so I didn't overheat.

I looked over at the fireplace that Obram had installed when he first bought out the place. Like always, he had a fire going. "That's a nice fire Obram." I commented as he sat down.

"I don't know why I bother," He admitted, "Looking at fires always makes me go to sleep; of course I could use some sleep right about now, I've been awake for about 20 hours at this point. I've been trying to track those EA cells that have made it through security, but most of my leads have mysteriously dried up. And C-SEC has been no help, because Executor Lenin Morara has been stonewalling any investigations into it."

Pelayo said nothing, but I could tell she was a little unnerved by that little admission.

I probably should have been more concerned, but I was too tired to care. "And why exactly has she done that?" I asked.

Obram shrugged, taking a giant swig of coffee; "I suspect bribery; but I can't prove it. The official reasoning given is that, 'We don't want to unnecessarily alarm the public with rumors of religious nut-jobs that are of no threat to the Citadel.' Deputy Executor Pallin has appealed several times, but got shut down every time."

He reached down into one of the drawers on his desk; and he pulled out a file.

"But there is some good news; our good friend, Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian has been trying to keep tabs on a few suspected EA sympathizers. Here, you should read up on his reports about these guys."

I took it and nodded my thanks, yawning as I did so. "And the rest of my team?" I asked.

He shrugged, "They should be here within the next few hours; Sergeant Pelayo?" Brooks looked up. "Good news for you, Phil was leading his own team when he got recalled to the Citadel; so they'll be a man short when they get here since Phil will be merging with the Majors team." He informed her.

Pelayo seemed both joyful and worried at the same time; and I could understand that sentiment. She would be the FNG on Phil's team; an unknown element that could potentially disrupt unit cohesion. But, she was now an official part of a full Ghost Fireteam; a step up in her career as a member of the GST.

For my part, I was just glad to have another team here besides my own as backup in case shit went south. "Besides my team, and Phil's when they arrive; do we have any other Ghosts on the station?" I asked.

"Yes, we have one other team led by a French guy named Phoenix operating in the lower wards of the citadel. They're tracking an Eayan Allah cell; but they're getting stonewalled by trying to stay unnoticed. They kill any of them; and the rest will disappear and scatter like cockroaches, so Phoenix is laying low for the time being." He explained.

I didn't recall ever meeting Pheonix, but he had been mentioned in my presence once or twice. The GST was big enough that everyone probably hadn't met each other, but it was small enough that everyone had at least heard of each other.

Still, it was good that we would have three full GST Fireteams on call for when shit went down with Shepard

I looked out the window next to the fireplace; "Supposed to snow all day?" I asked.

Obram looked out the window as well, and took a giant swig of coffee; grimacing as he did so, "Yeah, supposed to pick up as the day goes on. For something that happens at least once a year; multiple times a year in some cases, you would think the people on the station would be better prepared for it. I swear, one flake hits the ground and everything goes to hell" He grumbled.

I couldn't hold back a chuckle; Obram had been a Brooklyn native before coming here, so he wasn't all that impressed with the snow on the station. I had grown up in Southern Maryland, so while snow wasn't exactly foreign to me; it was still rare to see outside of January and February, and never more than a few inches.

"Their estimating about eight to ten inches sirs, they have already cancelled schools for the day; for the safety of all the children of course." Pelayo commented, looking slightly excited.

"Where'd you grow up Katarina?" Obram asked.

"Philippians for the first few years of my life, then my mom got her green card; southern California for the rest." She replied. "First time I ever saw snow was during training, when our chalk was dropped in the middle of Siberia."

I laughed before yawning loudly; "I hate to cut the small talk short guys, but I need some sleep before shit kicks off." I said.

"Before you do so, Grant wants you to deliver a message to Udina." Obram informed me.

"Can it wait?" I asked, not really keen to talk with the dick of an ambassador.

"Yes, just make sure you do it before Anderson and Shepard show up. And do it in your dress uniform, it'll make Udina more inclined to listen to you." He replied.

I nodded, "Alright, hey Sergeant." I turned to look at Pelayo. "After my nap, make sure you set my Exo-armor out for me; I may need to get it on in a hurry if something goes wrong."

She gave a quick nod, "Of course sir."

"Good," I stood up, "I'll read these on my way to Udina's office; what does the General want delivered by hand?"

"Garths CrossCOMM footage of Saren's attack on Nihlus."

* * *

**The Citadel, GST Safe House; February 21st 2183 CE/AD, 1625 hours **

"_-day, the snow has continued to pile on; many residents are encouraged to bundle up tight to avoid hypothermia. _

_In other news, the Anti-Batarian protests have been winding down due to the snow; with many going home after almost twelve hours of continues protests."_

I slammed my hand down on my omnitool; shutting off my radio alarm, groaning in annoyance.

I checked the time; "1625… fourteen hours of sleep; and it gives me about three hours before Shepard's arrival, nice." I mumbled, rolling out of the bed. I had made sure to take off the outer jacket, shoes, tie, and the button up shirt, and my pants before I had passed out in my bed; that way I didn't wrinkle them of anything like that.

Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but with Udina impressions were everything; and I couldn't afford to look like a slob. He may have been an Ass, but he was an intelligent Ass.

I quickly pulled my uniform on, and looked out the window; contemplating going without the overcoat. One look told me that wasn't happening; it was still snowing at the same rate as before, but the fake wind generated by the weather simulators had picked up.

I grimaced.

As pretty as it was; the attention to realism the Citadels creators had strived for was going to fuck us over. They would screw with our cloaking systems and prevent us from being able to stay hidden in plain sight.

It wasn't crippling; we were all trained in hiding with other methods, but it was annoying.

I picked up the files and reports on the Eayan Allah presence on the Citadel that Garrus had made; and stuffed them in the large inner pocket of my overcoat. I made sure I had everything before making my way downstairs to Obrams office.

Pelayo was asleep in one of his chairs; while Obram was reading some files on his desk.

With the GST, we used paper to store our data; except stuff that needed to be transferred to other places, and even then we kept written backups. You couldn't hack paper filing cabinets after all; and they were very easy to destroy when you needed to tear the place up and leave.

"Alright Chief, you have the video file ready?" I asked.

Obram started while Pelayo jumped, lurching awake and grabbing for her Browning before remembering where she was; "Ah yes, I have it right here." He said, reaching into his desk while Pelayo yawned and stood up.

"Here you go," Obram said while tossing the chip at me. I caught it while he continued; "Remember what you tell Udina, it's classified for security reasons; and the council can only observe the evidence under closed door sessions. And above all it comes from Alliance Intelligence; GST-"

"'Doesn't exist,' yeah, yeah I get it; I'm the guy that made the rule in the first place." I interrupted before turning to Pelayo, "Get your gear on Brooks, Exo-Variant; and get mine ready to go as well. Chief, can you do me a solid and brief my team when they get here?" I asked.

"Of course Nomad." He replied with a smile, understanding that we had switched to operational names.

I nodded and strode out of the complex and into the street; wincing as a gust of wind blew snow into my face and soaked my glasses. I took them off and put them in my pocket, knowing that I wouldn't really need them; they were mostly for disguises and driving anyway.

I turned up my collar and made my way to the Systems Alliance Embassy; knowing the route by heart at this point.

I bobbed and weaved through the crowds of people, the artificially generated cold weather not deterring them in the least. It was interesting to see which species was affected the most by the cold.

Humans, it tended to vary as to where the person was raised; but most weathered it fairly well.

I grew up in the mid-east, so while I was used to huge swings in weather temperatures; it mostly stayed firmly in the 90's and low 100's most of the time with 100% humidity, which was why desert planets like Tajicstan or Urzikstan didn't bother me all that much. Still, I was used to pretty brutal winters too; the average temperature dropping to around 20 to 15 degrees during the winter on average.

I can hear all the people from Canada and Northern States laughing at me; so fuck you, I can at least deal with the heat, most people I know from those area's whine and grip about how hot it is when it's only 80.

But I digress.

The Asari and the Salarians really didn't like the cold; with most of them bundled up with heavy layers to stay warm.

The Turians didn't seem to care much on way or the other; but they did seem to find the snow bothersome.

I didn't really see any other species besides Krogan, which made me think that they were staying indoors.

The more I thought about it though, the more concerned I became; the snow restricted visibility, and the cold made it so that a person wearing a big and heavy coat looked normal. This was prime weather for an assassin to hide their weapons and strike when a person was least expecting it.

That thought alone made me pick up the pace; my head on the swivel now.

The absolute last thing that I needed was to get caught flat-footed when an attack occurred. My dress uniform and my overcoat had a ballistic weave built into it; so it acted like John Wick's suit from the second and third movies.

But the number one rule of body armor was that it was only a backup in case you got unlucky or made a mistake; you weren't supposed to get shot in the first place. That was something that had pissed me off with a lot of action movies; the armor was an emergency backup, not a license to walk around in a battlefield with not a care in the world.

I quickly reached the Embassy; the GST station wasn't that far away which made my journey quick, and I walked into the lobby.

A squad of Marines was guarding the entrance, as per usual; and they all gave me very suspicious looks. The secretary was looking at me from behind her desk, and seemed to recognize my army uniform overcoat. "Good Afternoon Major, what can I do for you today?" She asked pleasantly.

I felt a slight pang of satisfaction as all the Marines stiffened, straining themselves into a tighter form of attention; if that was at all possible.

"Oh I won't be here long; I'm just here to deliver a message and a quick briefing from the Prime Minister." I explained. She blinked in surprise, so I knew I had to elaborate; "Very sensitive information that has come up within the past few hours, and we couldn't risk it being intercepted. It was all impromptu, but I was told the Ambassador is free to talk correct?"

"Er, yes; I'll let him know you're coming." She replied.

I gave a smile and a nod; "My thanks."

I walked past her desk, ignoring her talking on the intercom; and walked up the stairs.

The door opened as I stepped up to it; and I just walked in, finding the Ambassador at his desk reading something from his computer. "Ambassador Udina." I called.

He looked up at me, slight annoyance registering on his face. "Major, my secretary told me that you wanted to see me?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have a gift for you." I replied, pulling out the data chip from my coat. "Here." I tossed it towards him, and he caught it. "From General Grant."

Udina's eyes darkened; "What's on it? Did the spymaster finally decide to crawl out of his spider hole and help us with something?" He asked.

"Footage of Saren attacking Nihlus Ambassador; but it's classified and can only be shown to the Council in closed door testimony." I replied calmly.

Udina's eyes practically lit up with excitement; and he immediately slid the chip into his computer and played the footage. I had already seen it so I didn't bother watching it with him; and I was already buttoning my overcoat back up in preparation to leave.

"And this cannot be shown to the public?" Udina asked in disappointment, and I knew why he asked.

Garth had taken down eight Batarian Pirates after getting ambushed; and despite being seriously wounded, he still had the strength to save a Spectre by wounding another Spectre. If the public saw that Alliance Soldiers were this capable, it would certainly make them think twice before attacking human space.

"Unfortunately no, and this comes directly from the Prime Minister and the Oversight Committee; and the Councilors are to not replay this footage back to their governments. You'll have to invoke the Species National Security clause of the Citadel Council membership." I replied.

"Of course…" Udina grumbled.

I gave a light smile, "A piece of friendly advice before I go Ambassador?" I asked, deciding to try my hand at manipulating events.

Udina shrugged, "I think you'll tell me regardless spook, so go ahead and get it over with." He replied coolly.

"Try and drop the fake anger act, or at least tone it down; it makes you look like an ass, and it makes us look like blustering bullies by extension. When you go to the council, be cool and collected and present facts and logic. It makes them look unreasonable when they inevitably blow you off." I said, before turning on my heel and walking out.

I could see his face turning red, and I couldn't help but smirk as I walked out.

I walked down the stairs and into the lobby, nodding to the secretary on my way out; before the door to the embassy opened in my face, startling me. I instinctively went for my gun, before checking the motion upon seeing a friendly face. "Captain Anderson…" I said, giving a quick salute.

"Major… do you always go for your gun when you're in friendly territory?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Force of habit sir; if you'll excuse me, I have other things I need to be doing." I said, intentionally ignoring the people behind him; knowing full well who they were.

"Of course Major, good day." Anderson replied, standing aside as I speed walked out of the embassy. I needed to get back to the GST station and armor up; and fast.

* * *

**The Citadel, Systems Alliance Embassy; 1705 hours**

Shepard watched the Army Major leave; something about him seemed familiar, but she wasn't sure where she recognized him from.

"Well he was in a hurry." Alenko quipped from beside her, watching as the Majors overcoat flapped loosely in the wind and snow outside.

Williams had a scowl written clearly on her face; she didn't like Army troopers, seeing them as the reason her family was disgraced in the first place. Plus, those out of regulation mutton chops gave off an unprofessional air to him; and he had almost drawn on Captain Anderson just for startling him.

Anderson actually smiled a little as he watched him leave; "Ah… good to see he hasn't changed a bit."

Shepard looked at her CO in confusion, "Sir he almost drew on you." She pointed out.

Anderson shrugged, heading towards the stairs that led to Udina's office; "In fairness I did startle him; and instincts like that have probably saved him multiple times."

"You know that slob of a Major, sir?" Williams asked, turning her attention back to where they were going.

"I've crossed paths with him a few times." Anderson replied cryptically.

Jane shook her at this; knowing that was all they were going to get out of the man as the squad followed him to the Ambassadors office.

Udina's voice reached their ears as they walked up the stairs to his office. "The Council would intervene if the Batarians had attacked an Asari, Turian, or Salarian world. Your continued policy of non-action is clearly biased against those you consider to be 'lesser races'." Udina's said his voice unusually calm and pointed; in contrast to his normally bombastic and blustering nature.

This prompted raised eyebrows from everyone else as they walked into the office; the situation must have been serious if Udina was trying a different tack than blustering to the Council.

"You know as well as us that the Asari, nor the Salarians, nor the Turians found colonies on the borders of the terminus systems Ambassador." Councilor Valern pointed out.

"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the traverse." Councilor Tevos added.

"Really? Than what about the Batarian attack on the Asari colony of Tamaris? If I recall correctly, that is closer to the Terminus than Eden Prime. You pulled out all the stops to crush that fleet; and put a massive amount of sanctions on the Hegemony to boot. Yet you do nothing here, is that excuses I hear? Or is it blatant favoritism?" Udina challenged with a hint of steel creeping into his voice. "If the Council refuses to punish the Hegemony, humanity is more than willing to deal with the problem ourselves."

"That will not be necessary Ambassador; war is not something that should be taken lightly." Tevos retorted, calm and collected; but clearly annoyed by the stinging barb by Udina.

"Really? And what of Saren? You cannot ignore that footage I sent to you; it clearly shows Nihlus being attacked by Saren. Our Army SOE operator nearly died saving your Spectres life. Action must, and will be taken Councilors." Udina stated, narrowing his eyes.

Shepard turned her attention to Udina; she hadn't heard about this, the Spook on the ground had given the impression that Saren had fled just as Shepard and the rest of the ground team arrived at the station to avoid being spotted.

"Action is not necessary Ambassador." Councilor Sparatus growled, angered by the subtle threat by the human Ambassador.

"C-SEC is investigating your charges against Saren right now; and while this footage does implicate Saren, it does not prove your point. Saren might have been undercover with the Pirates and had to maintain it; he hadn't shot Nihlus, and might have only injured him if he had the opportunity.

And added to that, since this footage has been reviewed under the Species National Security clause of Council Membership, it cannot be used as part of the final charge and hearing.

This conversation is finished Ambassador; we will discuss the C-SEC findings during the hearing, not before." Tevos said with an air of finality.

Udina growled softly, but didn't argue the point as the holograms faded away.

He turned his attention to Anderson and the ground team; "I have to say, maybe that Spook was onto something with giving them cold facts and logic and throwing it in their face; they were far more off balance than usual at my change in strategy." Udina admitted, coming forward and shaking Anderson's hand.

Anderson couldn't help but laugh, "A Spooks whole job is convincing their target to do what the spook wants, while making the target believe it was their idea in the first place. I honestly think we should make them Ambassadors instead."

Udina snorted and turned his attention to Shepard, who was watching the whole exchange with narrowed eyes. Alenko and Williams were looking out the closed window of the veranda; watching the snow fall and gather on the ground. "You bring half your crew down Captain?" He asked, only half joking.

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime in case you had questions for them; or you wanted direct testimony." Anderson replied.

"I have the mission reports and helmet footage; I assume they are accurate?" Udina asked.

"They are, and it sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience." Anderson noted.

"They aren't happy about it; Saren is their top agent, and they don't like him being accused of treason. The only reason they agreed to an investigation at all is thanks to that footage the Spook delivered; they couldn't ignore it, even if they tried their best to dismiss it." Udina observed.

Shepard snorted audibly; "If the Council does nothing, I refuse to sit around on my ass and wait for Saren to attack humanity again. We'll deal with him, with or without the Councils help."

Udina gave a light shake of his head; "Settle down Lieutenant Commander, you've already done enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres. Saren may be at fault for everything falling apart as it did; but from the Councils point of view, this was your chance to prove you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus is in a coma and the Beacon is destroyed."

"That's Sarens fault, not hers." Anderson protested.

"Like I said, the Council will not see it that way; let's just hope the C-SEC investigation turns up some evidence, otherwise we're screwed." Udina retorted.

Shepard stood up from where she was half sitting on the veranda and walked up to beside Anderson, "May I ask who is leading the investigation?"

Udina pulled up his omnitool to check; "Deputy Executor Pallin has taken charge of it, and Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian is the chief investigator."

Jane had to fight to keep the smile out of her face; _If anyone can turn up evidence of a rogue Spectre, it'll be Garrus. _

"Now then, Captain if you would please come with me; there are some things that I would like to discuss before the hearing." Udina said, not quite ordering the Captain to do as he said. "Shepherd, the rest of you can meet us at the top of the Citadel tower. I'll smooth things over so that you have clearance to get in."

Anderson nodded, and the two walked out of the office; conversing in low tones to prevent eavesdroppers.

Williams waited until they were out of sight, before saying; "And this is why I hate Politicians and Spooks."

Shepard fixed her two subordinates a stern glare, before saying; "C'mon, let's see what C-SEC managed to find. Then we'll head to the hearing."

* * *

**The Citadel, GST Safe House; 1725 hours**

I made sure my under suit had sealed up properly before pulling on my digital desert-camo trousers and blouse over-top of it. Urban-camo would have been more appropriate, but I had been unable to procure any before leaving Urzikstan and disembarking the _Selene_; and Obram didn't have enough to go around. My dissatisfaction with the situation was only increased as I pulled on the dull copper-brown armor pieces and Exo-skeleton.

Everyone was mismatched in their Armor pieces; no one looked the same, but with SF uniformity was a hindrance.

Colt had arrived while I was sleeping; due to him being on the _Spirit of Fire _when the call had gone out. He had the proper camo and armor coloration as a result. Grey armor and Exo-Skeleton, and urban-camo blouse and trousers underneath. "Hey guys? With the way things have been flying off the rails, you think we'll be dealing with EA instead of Sarens people?" Colt asked as he pulled on his helmet and sealed the oxygen mask and visor.

Archer shrugged as she pulled up her wolf skull bandanna; "Hard to have things fly off the rails, when there seem to be no tracks in the first place." She noted, checking her black and blue midnight-camo; she had been running a boarding action, so she had needed something dark.

Phil snorted, "You must you ask such a stupid question? Of course we'll be dealing with these guys, perhaps just not today." He stated, dusting some imaginary dirt off of his multi-camo blouse.

I just rubbed my eyes, and pulled up my skull bandanna.

"Eayan Allah just up and disappearing is not good; it means they caught wind we were onto them. I think they're going to hit us soon, otherwise they risk getting caught." Brooks chimed in; dressed in the same digital woodland camo suit that she had used on Eden Prime.

Castle, Phils pick for replacement squad lead nodded; giving brooks an appreciative look, "She's right, they will make a move soon; what does Phoenix think?" he asked.

I just shook my head; "He's unreachable at the moment, he's tracking a cell in the lower wards. Doesn't want to spook them."

Rook, another of Phils squad; just scoffed, "What? The fucker thinks that's an excuse not to fuckin talk to us? Fucking cunt needs to learn how to communicate." He grumbled, his thick Scottish accent making him sound extra angry.

"Nomad, how do you want to play this sir?" Rose, the last member of Phils team; a Czech woman, asked me.

I pulled as many mags as I could and stuffed them into my pouches; the Beowulf packed one hell of a punch, but ammo was a bastard to handle. It was why I made the underslung shotgun Mass Effect based.

I loaded one mag in and yanked the charging handle, chambering the round; "We'll need to split up and cover as many bases as possible. Phil, you and Archer will need to find Wrex and Aethyta. Make sure to get their help in dealing with whoever the traitor in this canon is.

Colt, Brooks you two make your way to Dr. Michel's office and try your best to protect her.

Castle, Rook, Rose I need you three to shadow Shepard and make sure she doesn't get off track or anything like that." I paused as a thought crossed through my mind; "If Eayan Allah attacks the station and starts killing a lot of people; break cover and help C-SEC.

Don't forget our cover story, Alliance Intelligence Special Activities Division. Our mismatched appearance will help in that regard; only Phils team has the same uniforms, so you guys will need to stay away from each other if you can help it."

They all nodded and started loading their guns; "What about you sir?" Brooks asked as she loaded her own Beowulf.

"I'll shadow Ms. Zorah and see if I can stop Sarens assassins before they reach her." I replied as I checked the ammo block for the underslung shotgun.

Colt chuckled, "Tryin' to get laid there boss?" he asked jokingly, "Or just tryin' to find June a good mom."

Everyone, including me, had a good laugh from around the table; "says the guy who got arrested piss drunk and sleeping with three naked Asari in a public bar." I retorted.

Colt just rolled his eyes, "Sometimes I regret ever telling you that story." He grumbled.

I just laughed and gave a quick nod to everyone else, "Alright, let's get to work people."

* * *

**The Citadel, Presidium; 2010 hours**

"This is horseshit." Williams grumbled as they walked out of the tower and into the lobby area; dozens of VIP's and guests were milling about. They had all been there for the hearing, and some were laughing at the group of humans as they exited the tower.

To say it had gone poorly was an understatement.

The Council had refused to even consider the possibility of sanctioning the Batarians for a rogue fleets actions was what started it. Then Saren's almost too convenient excuse as to why he was with the Pirates had just been the cherry on top.

"'_Nihlus is my friend, I would not have killed him; I only shot to wound, it would have allowed me to maintain my cover.'_ Bah, the most convenient of excuses; and they buy it just like that." Alenko snarled.

"It was a mistake to even mention Shepard's vision or to bring you into this Anderson; you and Saren have too much history together, and it colored the whole trial." Udina said coldly.

"You're right, I shouldn't have come; but I would have thought that the Alliance Intel's Special Operators footage would have at least allowed them to keep an open mind." Anderson admitted.

"It didn't help in any way; in fact it made us look suspicious since we invoked the National Security Clause" Udina explained, "And your blatant threats of hunting down Saren certainly did not help Commander."

Jane said nothing in reply, shivering slightly at the snow and wind; thinking about Garrus, and hoping that he was alright. Apparently he had been called off the investigation by the Executor; but the Deputy had gone behind her back and had Garrus follow a suspected Eayan Allah cell to try and make an arrest.

Jane checked her map, and saw that Garrus was nearby; hopefully she could talk with him when he got on break from his stakeout.

* * *

**The Citadel, Presidium; 2015 hours**

"_The trial against Spectre Arterius has gone into recess for the time being; with all parties withdrawing to consult with their superiors. But it appears that the accusations leveled against Saren are baseless."_

"_Hmph, serves them right; Spectre Arterius is the best of the best, how dare they accuse him of treason. By the Spirits, he and Spectre Kryick are best friends; Saren would never attack his friend."_

"_I wonder what humanity will do though; unlike before, they seem to be incredibly bitter about this-"_

"Turn that shit off." Garrus grumbled to his friend and partner, Chellick.

Chellick sniffed but did as Garrus had asked. "For what it's worth, I agree with you and the rest of the humans; Sarens a thug with a badge and a license to kill." He said, placating Garrus.

Garrus just shook his head from the passenger seat of their cruiser. His girlfriend and potential fiancé was being accused of incompetence and being framed by a Spectre. And he wasn't there to comfort her.

Their relationship was a secret, but it wasn't something he could hide from the three other officers in the vehicle; they were friends and partners, and the people he had planned to witness the ceremony when they got married.

"I think its sweet, with how worried you've been about her." Their squads Asari and Biotic, Ishana Setis, chimed from the backseat.

"If the Council refuses to see reason, I highly suspect that Saren will end up dead the next time he goes to Alliance space." The lone human on the team, Allison Church pointed out.

They all hummed in agreement.

"Hey, 3 o'clock; large cargo hauler; Suspect is in the driver's seat." Allison called out.

All of them got serious and turned their attention to the skycar Allison had spotted. Garrus tapped his earpiece and zoomed in on the driver's seat. "That's him alright; Dispatch, this is Sierra 6-1 we have eyes on a Suspected Eayan Allah member in a cargo hauler. Requesting Permission to follow?" Garrus called into his earpiece.

"_Sierra 6-1 this is Pallin, Permission to follow and detain should the suspect show any sign of being armed; but do not engaged unless fired upon. Please don't turn the Presidium docks into a warzone Sergeant." _The radio chirped back.

"No promises Deputy Executor, but we'll try; Out." Garrus replied, quickly turning the car on, and began shadowing the truck; making sure to keep a safe distance from it.

Had they been closer, they would have seen the AK-64 hidden beside him.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Ward; 2020 hours**

Brooks and Colt kept to the shadows; avoiding any large groups they encountered along the way.

Brooks shivered as the snow fell against them; more out of nerves than actual chill. The snow was screwing with their active camo units; causing the "heat wave" effect normally seen when the person using it was moving too fast.

Fortunately, all the people who saw it briefly thought it really was just heatwaves from open windows or doors.

"Colt, do you think that Garrus will be there? Or are we on our own?" Brooks whispered into her mic, despite the fact the oxygen masks were noise cancelling.

"I think we're on our own, Garrus is reportedly tailing an EA sympathizer close to the presidium." Colt replied.

_Of course he was,_ Brooks couldn't help but feel a little bitter at the prospect; they should not have needed to get involved in the first place, but God, or Fate, or whatever higher power that existed had decided to make their lives more interesting.

"Garth's here though; we should drop in and say hi. And make sure he doesn't kill any of the nurses that try to stop him from leaving." Colt pointed out.

"Yeah, that should be fun." Brooks admitted as they approached the Clinic Dr. Michel worked at. "How should we say hi?"

"I think we might have to show ourselves." Colt suddenly said.

"Why?" She asked, confused.

Colt just pointed an invisible hand; and Brooks face palmed when she saw it. Garth, in a hospital gown; arguing with Dr. Michel in the lobby of her clinic, with a bemused looking Obram standing next to him.

"Why was he interned there?" Brooks asked.

"Because Dr. Michel has an arrangement with Obram that she'll treat any patient he brings in, no questions asked. And he donates a boatload of credits to her charity and clinic in exchange." Colt explained.

They both ducked into an alley and de-cloaked once they were sure no one would see them.

Brooks felt exposed, especially with her digital woodland-camo; Colt at least somewhat blended in with the snow with his urban-camo gear. They both walked into the street, and towards the clinic.

Neither noticed a man in a very thick trench coat wander out of the alley next to theirs, and take a seat on a bench in front of the clinic; his head bowed to the ground, most who passed assumed he was a passed out drunk.

But if they had gotten closer, they would have heard the muttering prayers in Arabic.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Market Place; 2025 hours**

Phil and Archer had a harder time than the rest trying to stay hidden.

Phils big size certainly did not help matters; but it was needed to help them get Wrex to recognize them. As they approached Fists place, knowing that it was indeed Fist that had sold Tali out in this timeline as well.

The crowds were almost overwhelming; but the two had dealt with much worse, especially on Islam dominated worlds where they had to track targets through market areas. The two ducked into a side alley that led to an emergency exit for Fists bar.

To their surprise, they found the two people they were looking for; Along with some unwanted guests preparing to ambush them.

"Wrex, we need to play this safe; not charge in like we're in a blood rage." Aethyta hissed, not seeing two hitmen sticking to the shadows; weapons raised.

"Please, the broker is paying good money for Fists head; and if we play it safe, he'll find us and run for it. We can deal with whatever he throws at us." Wrex retorted.

Phil and Archer looked at each other, and promptly de-cloaked; both immidiatly grabbed the hitmen, Phil snapped the left ones neck, while Archer yanked her knife from its chest sheath and plunged it into the right hitman's throat. She ripped it from left to right, nearly tearing the man's head off in the process thanks to her gene mods and the Exo-suits strength multiplier.

Without saying a word, the two of them dropped the hitmen unceremoniously to the ground with a soft _thud._

"Oi! Battlemaster…" Phil called out while leaning his shoulder against the wall.

Wrex and Aethyta spun around so fast, that Archer was surprised that they didn't get whiplash from the speed. The two Bounty Hunters froze upon seeing the two Ghosts, immediately recognizing their skull themed bandannas.

"Ah… You're Nomads people, long time no see." Wrex said calmly.

"You've gotten yourselves some upgrades." Aethyta added, eying up the Exo-suits.

"The Beauties of Skell Tech and a blank check telling them to go nuts." Archer said. "You know, you two argue like an old married couple; we could hear you from out in the crowded streets."

Wrex just snorted, "And why should we care?"

Phil kicked the dead hitman in front of him; "These two heard your bickering and were about to ambush you." He said.

"Ha! We could have dealt with them." Wrex chortled.

"Yes and ended up alerting Fist in the process." Aethyta chided her partner.

Archer just rolled her eyes; "Look, we got aligned goals here; we both want Fist, we need information, and I don't really care what you want to do with him provided we get the info we need. What do ya say we work together?" She asked.

Wrex seemed to think it over for a moment, then said; "Deal, just don't get in my way humans."

As they talked, none of them saw a large group of men in thick and heavy jackets exiting through the main entrance of Fists bar; dissolving into the crowd.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Market Place; 2030 hours**

I watched as Tali entered the Alleyway, slipping away from the crowded market. I made sure my Beowulf had a full mag and the underslung shotgun was not malfunctioning for about the tenth time in a row.

Something felt off about everything.

Shepard and the rest of the ground team was still stuck at the Presidium, being held up by dignitaries. Garrus hadn't arrived at Dr. Michel's clinic, and Wrex and Aethyta had been ready to sneak into Fists bar rather than shoot their way in.

This all felt so wrong.

I stayed cloaked in the shadows as I saw the Turian and two Salarian assassins enter the alleyway. I could see Tali immediately tense up when she saw the three agents enter her line of sight; "Are you the Shadow Broker?" She asked the Turian.

I could hear the nervous waver in her voice; and it felt like my heart was breaking at her naivety.

The Turian didn't answer right away, circling Tali; almost like he was checking her out. He finally stopped in front of her and asked, "Do you have the data?" his voice was grating, it sounded like he gargled glass.

Tali seemed to find her spine somewhat; and crossed her arms under her breasts indignantly, "I asked you a question, are you the Broker or not? And where is Fist." She demanded.

"No, but they'll be here soon." The Turian replied, touching the side of Tali's helmet with his talons; which she quickly smacked away.

"No way, the deal is off." She snapped, and turned around and tried to walk away.

I grimaced behind my mask and bandanna; _that's a big fucking mistake._ I thought as the Turian growled and grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around.

"You're not going anywhere." The Turian snarled as he went for his pistol.

Tali was quicker on the draw, and she drew her shotgun; blasting him point blank in the chest. A hole was ripped right through the Turians chest, killing him instantly. The two Salarians immediately drew their Rifles and two Turians appeared from where Tali had entered the alleyway.

_That's my Que. _I thought, smirking.

I stepped out of the shadows; not even bothering to de-cloak since I knew my gun would cause it to turn off automatically. I shot the first Salarian right in the head, his blood splattering the walls like some contemporary art.

The second whirled around, trying to see who had flanked behind them.

I used the shotgun and blew a hole in his chest; at this range his kinetic barriers were essentially useless. The assassin flew backward and slammed into the ground, a cluster of holes in his chest.

Tali meanwhile had taken cover behind a pile of crates; the Turians were just spraying their Rifles at me and her, lacking their normal discipline. I sprinted and did a baseball slide into cover beside Tali, startling the Quarian.

She tried to point her shotgun at me; but I stopped her by putting my hand on her barrel, "Easy there, I'm on your side." I exclaimed.

I could see her mercury eyes were as wide as dinner plates with fear; and it didn't seem to go down at all as she looked at me. The skull mask was very off-putting I will admit; useful when interrogating enemies, a handicap in dealing with allies.

"I'm Systems Alliance; Fist set you up, I'm here to help." I explained, ducking instinctively as a slug zipped particularly close to my head.

Tali still seemed terrified, but nodded in understanding; I took out a flashbang and said, "I'll take right, you take the left got it?"

"I-okay!" She squeaked.

I tossed the flashbang, waiting until I heard the loud _BANG!_ before saying "Now!"

I popped up, using my laser pointer and red dot site on top of my ACOG to aim as I squeezed the trigger. The .50 caliber round smashed into the Turians visor, shattering it and exploding his brains out of the back of his helmet.

The kinetic barrier hadn't even slowed it down.

Tali for her part had been right on target; blasting the other assassin right in the chest, killing him instantly. Even as the Turian fell to the ground, Tali was dropping her shotgun and collapsing to her knees gasping.

I looked over at her alarmed, thinking she had been wounded; but realized that it was just shock setting in.

After checking to make sure that there were no other assassins in the area; I knelt down next to Tali and put my hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked softly, already berating myself for asking it; of course she wasn't okay, she had just killed someone.

But that did seem to steady her as she took a deep breath and looked at me; "Yes… yes I am okay." She seemed to size me up and asked, "Who are you?"

I smiled even though she couldn't see it, "Call me Nomad, Alliance Intelligence Special Activities Division. I was sent here to get the data you had on a rogue Spectre."

Tali immediately jumped with alarm, "Oh _Kheelah!_ I almost forgot! The entire citadel is in danger!" She exclaimed.

I held out a hand as I stood up with her, "Whoa, whoa calm down there, what do you mean?" I asked, a little alarmed.

* * *

Shepard looked out beyond the large swath of media folks and dignitaries pressing flesh to try and talk with her and frowned. "Hey Ell Tee? Chief" She asked.

Aleko and Williams turned their attention away from trying to find a way out of the crowd. "Yes Ell Cee?" Alenko asked.

Shepard pointed out to the traffic jam of skycars entering and leaving the Presidium. "Does that cargo hauler look like it's going a little fast?" She asked.

As she did so, everyone near her turned their attention to what had caught the famed Commander Shepard's attention. No one saw four men exit a nearby skycar, and start spreading around the presidium and the shops in the area.

* * *

"Saren, the Spectres name is Saren; he and that old Batarian Spectre, Balak, he lead the attack on Eden Prime!" She rushed her words so fast; my translator could barely keep up.

"Yeah, we got that part, we saw him attacking one of his fellow Spectres." I said, narrowing my eyes.

"But there was another part of the message!" Tali wailed.

* * *

"Garrus, that trucks not slowing down!" Chellick exclaimed, horror dawning in his voice.

Garrus' eyes widened as he saw what Chellick was talking about; "Oh shit! Dispatch! The Suspect is speeding toward the Presidium in a Cargo Hauling skycar and he's not slowing down!" He shouted.

* * *

Castle, Rose, and Rook had reached their respective vantage points in the Presidium area; and had seen the approaching truck.

"Uh guys, I don't think that trucks slowing down." Rook pointed out nervously.

Rose flipped on her thermals; and her eyes bulged out in horror. "Oh shit! It's a bomb!" she shrieked.

* * *

Colt and Brooks both tried to placate Garth as he struggled to get out of Dr. Michels firm grip; "Garth it's fine sir; we're on the Citadel." Brooks said, trying to calm her mentor down.

"No! No! You don't get it! Eayan Allah is going to attack!" Garth exclaimed.

"Garth, what are you talking about; C-SEC has tripled its security all around the station since Eden Prime, they wouldn't dare try it now." Colt tried to reason.

Unnoticed by them, but seen by Dr. Michel and the rest of the crowd wandering the wards; the man that everyone had assumed was a passed out drunk stood up from his bench and dropped his trench coat.

* * *

"That's just it! Saren, Balak, and the human you call the Imam! They planned all of this! Eye of God is going to bomb the station as 'retaliation' for Eden Prime!" She shrieked.

My mind was whirling at this; I was such a fucking idiot for not putting this together sooner.

"ALL UNITS ON ALL FREQUENCIES! This is Alpha 1-1, Alliance SAD! SANDSTORM! SANDSTORM! SANDSTORM!" I screamed.

* * *

Archer and Phil heard the sandstorm call, and immediately drew their weapons and pointed out to the street; Wrex and Aethyta doing the same, having tapped into the operators frequency and hearing the man's frantic calls.

They didn't know what it meant, but they knew it wasn't good.

Just as they took attention away from the emergency exit; a man in a winter coat stumbled out of it. He stopped upon seeing them, and decided that four was enough for him. He threw off his coat with a loud rustle, drawing Aethyta's attention.

Her eyes bugged out of her head, and she threw a Barrier in between the group and the man in desperation as the words that echoed throughout the station left his mouth in a scream.

"_ALLAH ACKBAR!"_

* * *

Shepard, Alenko, Williams, and the Alliance Marines helping guard the presidium heard the Sandstorm call go out; immediately forming defensive positions as they screamed at the crowds to get down on the ground. Then they too heard the dreaded words.

"_ALLAH ACKBAR!"_

* * *

Garrus didn't have the luxury of a warning; but he did see the briefest hint of trouble as Chellick set the skycar down. They were close to where the skyhauler was going to hit, but far enough away to not get hit by shrapnel.

Then he saw the driver; a manic grin on the man's face as he flew the hauler right into the dock.

If he had been in the cabin with the man before the explosion; he would have heard it too.

"_ALLAH ACKBAR!"_

* * *

Garth immediately grabbed Brooks' gun out of her holster while the two operators spun around and raised their weapons out the door; hearing the screams outside even before the Sandstorm call went out, Obram pulling a pistol from the depths of his overcoat.

The man's face was blank; his arms spread as if he were crucified.

Garth, Colt, Obram, and Brooks all shot; but for the first time in their lives, their training betrayed them.

Rather than aiming for the head; they followed their instincts and shot the man in the chest. The .50 caliber Beowulf and 9mm Parabellum rounds slammed into his chest; and the terrorist staggered slightly.

But there was nothing they could do to stop what was coming, as the man screamed as loud as he could with his lungs filling with blood.

"_ALLAH ACKBAR!"_

* * *

I didn't hear the or feel the explosions; because they all occurred at the exact same time.

It was a perfect set of coordination; rather than having the men trigger it themselves, the S-vests had been set to go off at a specific time. That way, they all knew when they should be in position; and it would go off even if they were killed before they could press the button.

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say; I should have realized we were safer in that alley.

But I grabbed Tali's hand and dragged her with me; ignoring her yelp of surprise as I exited the alley and into the market. Saren had been a Spectre; the citadel's premier Spook, so I should have known he had a contingency plan for just in case Tali had managed to escape, or not fall for his trap.

Tali and I stopped dead as we exited the alley into the crowded street.

I saw him before it happened, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it.

The Arab man smirked as he looked at us through the thronging crowd; he dropped his coat and spread his arms. Screams rose up from the humans in the crowd, as they recognized what they saw from their history books and from the news.

But the aliens had no clue what was about to befall them.

I did the only thing a could think off when I saw him spread his arms; Tali was shorter and thinner than me, and the data was locked to her omnitool. I had to protect her so I wrapped her up in a bear hug, ignoring her yelp of protest; and flipped her around so that I was between her and the bomber, and dropped to the ground.

I only made it halfway down to the ground when it happened.

The last thing I heard was _"ALLAH ACKBAR!"_

Then a huge explosion threw me and Tali head over heels into the glass window of a nearby shop; but I kept my grip on her, until I slammed headfirst into the metal counter where the receptionist was already being thrown backwards by the shockwave.

I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head; I saw a flash of light, and then everything went black.

* * *

**A/N: -oof… August is gonna feel that one in the morning.**

**So events have finally come full circle; I started this little mini-arc off with the perspective of one of the bombers, and I ended it with the perspective of everyone else. Eayan Allah has a level of coordination that rivals al-Qaeda to be able to pull off an attack like this.**

**Or not, considering Saren had planned for something like this. **

**Next chapter is going to be a doozy to write, because the terror brought by the Eye of God does not end here. Oh no, not by a long shot. **

**-Next on the list; I want you guys to PM me if you want to submit something for my other new fic "GST side stories". These stories are not written by me, they are written by you guys; the fans and other SI writers out there.**

**User "Ian the Mechanic" has already submitted a chapter, and it is damned good guys. Go give it a read. If your sitting there feeling bored, just write one and see how it goes.**

**-Next up, I know there are going to be a lot of people who will hate me for adding in weather effects to the Citadel, and making the Citadel feel more like a planet than a station. **

**Fuck you; it's an Alternate Universe, so I can play around a little bit with the rules. It makes things more interesting; to you zealots out there want their canon Citadel, just leave. **

**-Last on the list, to all the people who PM'd me saying I misspelled Shepard's name as Shepherd; OKAY I GOT IT! SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! I FIXED IT!**

**I went back to every single chapter and fixed the spelling; and went ahead and fixed some grammar and typos while I was at it.**

**I get it guys, you want this story to be good; and you want to help me out. I get that, and thank you for catching my mistakes. But after having eleven different people, some nice, the rest not so nice, demanding that I go back and fix it; it kind of grated on my nerves let me tell you.**

**Urgh… **

**I'll be a little slow updating, because I start class and work back up again; and that takes priority. I hope this long one can hold you over until then.**

**Okay. I would really like a TV tropes page guys; please… just give me one. I really fucking want one; it's like my dream to have it happen.**

**Please leave a review and tell me what y'all thought of the chapter and what you think of the story overall. Just please don't be a dick about it guys. These reviews are the lifeblood of any writer, it gives us motivation to keep going; so please leave one if you can.**

**Have a good day.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	13. Aldhiaab, The Wolves

**A/N: Still taking submissions for GST side stories; I now have a discord channel, the link is ****/Pv2bv88**

**The Citadel, Zakera Market Place; ? hours**

_Ow…_

That was the first thought that entered my mind as I slowly regained consciousness. I blinked dully, as alertness slowly returned to my mind. My audio receptors had been overwhelmed and blown out by the massive explosion, so my ears were ringing slightly as I slowly shifted myself.

I blinked.

The lights of the store I had crashed into were off; in fact the lights were sparking in some places. Red emergency lamps had activated, and were flashing; an alarm was buzzing faintly in the background.

I winced as a throbbing headache pounded in my head.

Then came the gunshots; I slowly turned my head and saw two C-SEC officers come into the shop, scrambling into cover. One was human and the other was Turian; both were spraying their pistols into the mass of dust and smoke in the street, trying to keep something away.

The Human fell first, an AK round smashing through his ruined shields and taking his head off.

Three more humans charged into the store, one holding an AK-64; while the other two had Avenger assault rifles. The Turian officer tried his damndest; but it wasn't enough, he shot one of the two terrorists that were using the Avengers, but the remaining two sprayed him down and riddled the poor officer with slugs and bullets.

My hearing had returned to me fully, and my audio receptors had finally rebooted after getting overwhelmed; allowing me to hear everything. From behind me, I heard the shifting of debris and rubble; a distinctly feminine groan reaching my ears.

_Shit…_

I had planned on playing dead and just let these guys move on; allowing me to retrieve my gear in peace. But I had forgotten about Tali in my concussed state; and I needed that data, and above all I didn't want her to die.

"_The Quarian is still alive…" _The one holding the Avenger commented in Arabic. My translator only worked on alien languages, not human ones, so I had to learn it the hard way; which was good, because I was pretty sure most of my electronic equipment was still rebooting after the shock they had received.

"_The Imam was clear; she must be taken alive for that data." _The AK guy replied.

"_Why can't we just wipe it, kill her, and be done with it?"_ Avenger asked.

"_I do not know, perhaps he wishes to keep her alive as a slave technician; Allah knows we need someone to maintain our equipment." _AK stated.

Avenger grunted and walked over to where Tali was presumably laying. I heard a rustling noise, and I think whatever he did must have woken her up fully; because she screamed and started cursing them in Kheelish, _"Det kazuat! Ti Tasi! Ti cholerni terroryści! Vy ubiytsy otpustite menya!_ _Bosh'tet pozwól mi odejść!" _

I had learned a smattering of Kheelish; which had many similarities to Polish and Russian funnily enough, and I could tell that she was cursing them out. But I felt a pit form in my stomach; _yup translators down for the moment. _I confirmed, as I could see my HUD was slowly booting up.

"_Feisty alien this one is Brother." _Avenger grunted as he dragged Tali past me.

"_Allow me to teach her respect then." _AK growled back.

AK punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her; and then he smashed the butt of his AK into her face. My blood ran cold as a web of cracks worked their way across Tali's visor. She shrieked in fear and pain, and held he hands up, cowering in fear; _"Nie! Nie! proszę, nie lomayte moy kozyrek!"_ She begged.

"_Not too hard Brother, err we accidently break her mask and kill her; the Imam will be greatly displeased with us if we kill her as you said so yourself." _Avenger chided.

"_The whore must be taught respect; she may cover her face like a proper woman, but she dresses like a slut. And she doesn't respect men like she should!" _AK protested.

I frowned; these guys must have come from a really isolated community of Urzikstan or Tajicstan; the ones that fled Earth to continue practicing Wahhabist Islam.

"_Then the Imam and Mohandas will teach her to clothe and behave herself properly Brother; now come, we must leave this place."_ Avenger promised.

I still didn't know where my Beowulf had landed, but my revolver was still in my shoulder holster; and both men were distracted completely. _"Proszę nie delay mne bol'no."_ Tali whimpered.

I took a breath and closed my eyes; relaxing my muscles. _"Shut it whore!" _Avenger exclaimed.

In a blur of motion, I whipped my revolver out of his holster; and fired. Avenger was closer to me, and not looking at Tali; and with a pull of the trigger, Avengers head popped like a water balloon filled with chunky soup.

AK spun around while bringing his rifle to bear, but he was too slow.

I fired again; and AK dropped to the floor, dead as a doornail. I could already feel my wrists throbbing in pain from rapid firing two shots, but I ignored it; I swept the room from where I lay, and upon finding nothing I holstered my revolver and staggered to my knees.

Tali stared at me with wide eyes; _"Oh Kheelah! Ti dumal ty umer!" _She exclaimed, crawling over to me.

I grunted and shook my head; seeing my Beowulf had landed about four feet away from me, I walked over to it and checked for damage. Cycling a round to make sure nothing vital had been damaged. I had to hand it to Skell Tech, they made sure shit worked under pressure.

My HUD was still coming back online; and I impatiently tapped my audio receptors, "Hey can you hear me?" I asked.

Tali tilted her head in confusion, "Why wouldn't I be able to hear you?" She asked as I smiled in satisfaction.

"Sorry, my suit took a hit in that explosion and needed a hard reboot; I couldn't understand you at all, so I needed to make sure your translator wasn't down." I explained.

"Oh…" She replied, sounding small.

"You hurt at all?" I asked, kneeling in front of her and checking the cracks in her visor.

She shook her head, "I'm fine, no suit breeches." She replied.

"Ok good, cause I'm gonna need your help." I said, standing up.

I walked over to the two dead guys, a pointed and said; "As good as you are with that shotgun, you're gonna need something with range. Take the AK or the Avenger, it doesn't matter to me; but at the moment, the AK might be the better choice for you in the long run. Because I have no doubts these guys are all over the station, and they'll have more ammo for you."

Tali gulped visibly while I put a hand to my ear; "This is Alpha 1-1 to any units in the area, do you read me?" I asked.

_"…"_

"Shit…" I growled; either the EA fighters had brought a jammer, a tech guy, or my radio had been knocked out. This just kept getting better and better.

I looked at Tali, who had walked up to the corpses of the two terrorists, and said; "Comms are down, so we're on our own at the moment."

"What about C-SEC?" Tali asked as she considered the Avenger and the AK.

I grimaced, "These guys are just mowing down anyone they see; so I think C-SEC is a little busy trying to contain the situation." I informed her.

She looked down, and a shudder passed through her body; "Hey…" I said softly, setting a hand on her shoulder, "We'll be okay, but we can't stay here; we gotta keep moving." I told her.

Tali took a breath and nodded; grabbing the AK, but none of the magazines, which amused me greatly for some reason. "Here," I said while grabbing the four spares they guys hadn't used yet, "That thing won't be very useful unless you take some spares." I told her.

Tali just gave me a really confused stare, and I rubbed my face in irritation as I realized I had to explain how a non-Mass Effect based gun worked. _I hope the rest of my team is dealing with this alright._

* * *

**The Citadel, Presidium; 2039 hours**

Shepard coughed as she staggered up to her feet. She looked to her left and saw Alenko helping Williams to her feet.

Jane coughed and spat some dust out of her mouth as she picked up her Avenger from off the ground. Bodies… bodies were everywhere; the cargo hauler crashing into the Presidiums docks, mixed with the four simultaneous suicide bombers at several of the most traffic heavy areas of the Presidium had killed so many people.

And it had injured a great deal many more.

"All units this is November 2-1; we've had a massive explosion at the presidium, multiple casualties. We need backup and paramedics immediately!" She snapped into her radio.

"_This is Bravo 4-1, call sign Castle, Alliance SAD; November 2-1 be advised you have multiple tangos approaching your position!" _A man shouted back.

"Shit!" Jane swore, "On your feet Marines we got hostiles inbound!" she bellowed.

As she said that, at least a dozen terrorists swarmed the presidium from the entrance ramps; screaming and bellowing in Arabic, some dressed in rags in spite of the cold and snow, some dressed in a mix of suits and armor, and all of them were armed.

Some had AK-64's, most had Avengers and Lancer assault rifles.

To make matters worse, at least half of the civilians on the ground had started moving; having started to regain conciseness. Shepard aimed her own Avenger and fired while enacting a biotic barrier around the civilians that had started to move. Alenko, Williams, three marines, and six C-SEC officers fanned out; trying to find cover, while Alenko assisted her with the biotic barrier.

Jane fired another burst from her rifle as the terrorists turned their attention to her and the Staff Lieutenant; seeing the two biotics as the greatest threat. One reached into a jacket and pulled out a very familiar looking sphere, and reached his arm back in preparation to throw.

Shepard spotted the man and fired into his head; causing the terrorist to drop the grenade.

An explosion cut down two more of the terrorists.

Jane ducked under a nearby plant holder; the soil providing good cover from the stream of gunfire. "ALENKO! She bellowed.

Kaiden sprinted from the berm of cover he had taken over to her. "Ell Cee?!" He asked.

Shepard tossed a grenade towards the terrorists before ducking back into cover; "Take the Marines and flank left!" She ordered as an AK round smacked into the tree right above her head. Alenko nodded, and rushed to where the three Marines had taken cover; relaying her orders.

"Williams! Get ready to cover them!" She shouted into the team-comm.

"Copy that Commander!" She replied.

She waited three seconds, and then Alenko radioed; _"Ready Commander!"_

"Ok! Covering fire!" Shepard drew her sniper rifle and propped it up on the dirt container; sighting one terrorist hidden behind a pillar, and squeezed the trigger.

The man's head snapped back, and he dropped to the ground; causing a smirk to adorn Shepard's face. The exchange had lasted less than a minute, and already the terrorists had lost more than half their number; and they seemed to realize that.

Determined to go down swinging, the seven remaining fighters did something that took everyone except Shepard off guard. They jumped out of cover and charged screaming at the entrenched C-SEC officers, Shepard and Williams.

Unfortunately for them; at that moment Alenko had completed his flanking maneuver.

Three more fell dead as a curtain of slugs slammed into them from their right side; Williams shot another in the chest, while C-SEC took care of another two.

The last one didn't even seem to care about the loss of his comrades and rushed at Shepard. She fired her rifle as he neared her; the rest of the defenders doing the same, riddling the EA fighter with slug holes and cutting him to ribbons.

As the last terrorist fell, he triggered his S-Vest through his bio-monitor; and the explosion knocked Jane flat on her back, her audio receptors getting overwhelmed for a moment. She blinked as she stared out into the vastness of space.

Even from this distance; she could see the smoke billowing from each of the arms of the Citadel, and she could hear the gunfire of both the terrorists Chemical based weapons and the defenders Mass Effect weapons. Above all, she could hear the screams of the civilians trying to flee the combat areas.

Williams concerned face filled her vision, and Shepard blinked and sat up with a loud groan. "You alright Commander?" Williams asked.

"Yeah I'm good… Dammit…" Shepard growled, before calling out, "We Clear?!"

"Clear Left!"

"Clear Right!"

"Clear Center!"

"Clear Back!"

The Marines and C-SEC officers cleared the area; allowing Jane to get back on the radio to try and make sense of what was going on. "This is November 2-1 on all frequencies, the Presidium is secure; requesting sitrep."

"_This is Deputy Executor Pallin on all frequencies, we are under attack at C-SEC headquarters; but we have it under control. We're getting alerts from officers all over the station in all of the wards. _

_EA fighters have total control of the_ _Zakera Ward Market Place with a few pockets of friendly resistance. _

_All units not currently engaged with Terrorist units or protecting the Presidium and Docks are ordered to retake the Zakera Ward Market. _

_Be advised the Docks are in friendly hands, and the EA fighters have cut all comms in that area!"_ A familiar flanging voice replied.

Shepard grimaced, the situation was rapidly deteriorating but still salvageable; "This is November 2-1, can any units move to assist?" She asked.

"_This is Bravo 4-1, we're moving to secure the Zakera Ward Market Place now; using commandeered skycars over." _Castle replied.

Shepard gave a small smile; the Special Activates Division's specialty was counter-terrorism, so they were a welcome help. The only problem was that they would likely go lone wolf and largely ignore her once they reached to combat area.

The next voice on the radio, however, instantly improved her mood;_ "This is Detective Sergeant Vakarian, moving to assist Bravo 4-1."_

* * *

**The Citadel, Presidium Docks; 2035 hours**

Garrus brushed glass out of his fringe; grunting as he picked himself up off the ground.

He coughed as he drew his pistol; instinctively ducking behind cover as he desperately tried to reorient himself. It was a good thing he did; because EA fighters seemed to appear from nowhere, some accurately aiming their rifles and shooting at anyone that appeared to be a threat; all the rest just shot from the hip, spraying and killing indiscriminately into the fleeing masses.

Worst of all, dozens of skycars had begun to fall out of the sky; the massive explosion from the cargo hauler having destroyed or disabled their ability to fly.

Garrus could hear the poor civilians inside screaming as they fell to their deaths; and he ground his mandibles. Sighting one enemy fighter, he shot him right through the head with an expertly placed pistol shot.

It succeeded in drawing their attention away from killing civilians; but now Garrus found himself having the full attention of the entire band of terrorists. He cursed and ducked behind his disabled C-SEC skycar as the whole band began firing at him; the shots pinging against his cover.

Two more terrorists fell as slugs smacked into them from their left; Chellick having managed to flank them while he had been helping the injured civilians.

Another terrorist's neck snapped as Setis clenched her fist while engaging her biotics; a furious bloodthirsty snarl written across her face.

The last three tried to split their fire between the three C-SEC officers; but Allison had flanked the EA fighters while they had their attention on Garrus, Chellick, and Setis. She had grabbed an AK from a dead fighter, and fired two carefully controlled bursts into the two less exposed fighters; ripping their heads apart.

The last fighter seemed to panic, and charged toward Garrus by virtue of being closest to him.

Chellick shot the fighter in his head and the fighter flopped to the ground dead. But before any of them could react, the fighter exploded; shattering windows of the nearby apartments and skycars; while knocking the squad of veteran officers to the ground.

Garrus grunted, pulling himself up off the ground; "We clear?" He asked.

"We're clear!" Allison called back.

The four officers staggered over to their disabled skycar; the gravity of their situation finally catching up to them. "Fuck…" Chellick rasped as his fringe and mandibles drooping in dismay; "How has this happened?"

"Spectres and STG dropped the ball, that's what fucking happened!" Setic snapped angrily; her biotics flaring in tune with her fury.

Garrus tilted his head, the screams of panicking and fleeing civilians and the chemical powered weapons of the EA fighters filling his ears. "We need to get moving; there are still more fighters closer to the docks." He ordered, his combat training and instincts kicking in; replacing the shock and horror that had filled his mind moments before.

His friends nodded, moving to scavenge the weapons from the dead terrorists before they advanced on the docks. Chemical based weapons were superior in some ways, and inferior in others; but they were far more accurate and heavy hitting than their pistols at the moment, so they couldn't be picky.

_Although I do wish whoever had supplied them had at least given them a sniper rifle_; Garrus thought as he eyed the AK-64 with an expression akin to distaste. "Alright, are we good?" He asked.

"We're good Garrus, let's kick their asses." Allison replied with a wolf like grin on her face.

* * *

The four officers slowly crept their way to the docks; being extra careful to avoid where the cargo hauler had exploded. The dock itself was mostly intact thanks to the materials the Protheans had used to build it; but the surface itself was glowing red from the heat of the explosion.

Garrus held up a fist, and the others immediately crouched and took cover behind various pillars and wreckage.

Gurrus peeked up slowly, and saw four EA fighters standing guard in front of a few skycars; clearly having used them to land on the presidium in the chaos. "Okay guys, each take one and kill them; we'll cut off any of the remaining EA fighter's ability to escape." He whispered. "I got the guy closest to the cars.

They all picked their targets, aiming carefully; and after a moment, he gave a countdown.

"Fire in three…" He took a breath.

"Two…" he released and relaxed his body.

"One…" He fingered the trigger, slowly squeezing it.

"Fire." _Bang!_

Four simultaneous gunshots rang out in the presidiums docks, as four terrorists dropped to the ground dead. Garrus breathed a sigh of relief, he had been worried that one of them had one of those explosive vests strapped to them; but it appeared that his fears were unfounded this one time.

The four officers cautiously advanced to the parked skycars, fully aware of the potential for explosive traps. Allison had already pulled up her omnitool to scan the cars in preparation for commandeering them. They reached the vehicles, weapons at the ready; when Garrus noticed something.

The gunfire in the Presidium had tapered off to next to nothing.

Chellick had noticed as well thanks to the fact that Turians had better hearing than most other species. "Garrus…" Chellick started, before Garrus nodded.

"Yeah I hear it too." He stated. "What does that mean?"

"It means that the fight is no longer here." A disembodied male's voice replied.

All four of the officers whipped around to face the source of the voice; finding themselves face to face with three humans dressed in strange armor and uniforms. The bandannas in particular were odd, and intimidating to say the least.

And most importantly, they were armed; with unfamiliar chemical based weapons to boot.

"Who are you?" Setic snarled, flaring her biotics.

The one in the middle raised his trigger hand in a "don't shoot me" gesture. "Blue! Blue! My names Castle; Alliance SAD, here to assist." He replied.

Garrus narrowed his eyes; he had never heard of this SAD.

Chellick and Setic both looked at Allison, along with Garrus; and found that the human officer was suddenly very pale. "Special Activities Division?" Allison asked, her voice oddly strained and pleased at the same time.

"That's right officer." Castle replied, inclining his head.

Garrus tilted his head; and Allison gulped; "The Alliance Special Activities Division… they…" She started.

"We're a Black Counter-Terrorism unit, and we assassinate people for the Systems Alliance for a living as well; we do other things of course, but that's what we're most known for." Castle finished for her.

Garrus gave them a hard look, and opened his mouth to say something.

Then a loud shrieking noise caused all four C-SEC officers to scratch at their earpieces in pain; before it faded away to a dull buzz that was far more tolerable; "What the fuck was that?" Setic demanded.

She got her answer as a familiar voice entered their ears. _"This is Deputy Executor Pallin on all frequencies, we are under attack at C-SEC headquarters; but we have it under control. We're getting alerts from officers all over the station in all of the wards. _

_EA fighters have total control of the Zakera Ward Market Place with a few pockets of friendly resistance. _

_All units not currently engaged with Terrorist units or protecting the Presidium and Docks are ordered to retake the Zakera Ward Market. _

_Be advised the Docks are in friendly hands, and the EA fighters have cut all comms in that area!"_

The four officers looked at each other, then at the SAD operators; before another voice wormed its way into their ears, one that almost made Garrus jump for joy that she was okay.

"_This is November 2-1, can any units move to assist?"_ Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard, Potential Spectre, N7, and his fiancé to be asked in reply to his superiors call for help.

Castle put a hand to his ear, even as his troopers pushed past the C-SEC officers and piled into one of the skycars. "This is Bravo 4-1, we're moving to secure the Zakera Ward Market Place now; using commandeered skycars over."

Garrus smiled as the humans piled into the vehicle; and turned to his team, "Think you guys can hold the dock until relief gets here?" He asked.

"Yeah, we got this; go help your girlfriend Sergeant." Chellick replied, doing the Turian equivalent of a smile.

Garrus nodded and jogged to the skycar; "Hey, wait for me!" He shouted.

The humans looked at each other, and one of them just shrugged; "What the hell, why not; hop in Sergeant."

Garrus nodded, putting a hand to his communicator; "This is Detective Sergeant Vakarian, moving to assist Bravo 4-1."

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Ward Markets; 2037 hours**

Wrex snarled as the human tried to stab him through the kink in his headplate.

It was good attempt, and it showed that the human terrorist was smart; but not smart enough to know that going hand to hand with a Krogan was a death sentence. Wrex didn't even bother with Biotics, he just batted the little pest away; the human slamming into the nearby wall with a loud _crunch!_

"Left!" Archer shouted as another terrorist grappled with her; trying to jam a knife into her neck.

The human warrior kicked the EA fighter in the knee; breaking it backwards thanks to her gene mods and her exoskeleton. The man screamed, and Archer head-butted him before drawing her own knife and stabbing it under his jaw and into his brain; before twisting it and yanking it out.

As she did so, Wrex spun to his left, firing his shotgun as he did so; splattering the other fighter's brains against the wall.

Archer sheathed her knife and brought her gun up, checking to make sure they were clear before she lowered it again. Panting, the human warrior braced herself against the wall and held her side.

Wrex looked over, allowing himself to feel a slight amount of concern; "You okay human?" He asked.

Archer shrugged; "Probably cracked a few ribs in the explosion; I'll be fine, let's just find Phil and 'thyta." She replied.

Wrex grunted in reply, and started walking; making sure he stayed close to the wall. The human knew her own limits, and he wouldn't interfere so long as it didn't end up getting him killed.

He grimaced.

As much as he didn't want to admit it; the explosion had rattled him a bit. Had Aethyta not spotted the human terrorist, she and the two humans would be dead; and he probably would have been very seriously wounded, easy pray for any EA fighters sweeping the markets for survivors.

As it was, he and Archer had gotten separated from Aethyta and Phil in the confusion following the series of simultaneous explosions.

Now they were heading for one of the few places in the markets not under EA's control for the time being. They had picked up a few C-SEC officers as well, both for the added guns; and so that reinforcements wouldn't shoot them on site.

Two Turians, who were pretty good shots; an old Human, who it seemed like he had a little more food than he should have, and an Asari maiden that had probably just graduated C-SEC academy.

"Why in the hell have we not gotten more reinforcements, these terrorists practically control the whole market and residential areas now." The Human officer questioned angrily as he looked to the citadel skyline; seeing only a marginal amount of C-SEC skycars approaching the ward.

"EA cut all external comms, and look at that smoke by the Presidium and on the other arms; they clearly have bigger priorities at the moment, protecting their all-knowing councilors and all that." Archer replied coldly; keeping her gaze outward like Wrex.

One of the Turians growled in reply; "You know nothing human; if it weren't for your kind, this wouldn't have happened in the first place." He snarled.

Wrex just sighed, _here it comes. _He thought wearily. Archer was a great warrior and soldier, even back the first time the two groups met; but she had a short temper, and now? He was honestly surprised she hadn't gutted the racist Turian and moved on.

Archer kept her gaze and her gun outward, but her voice got even colder; "Gee… what thanks for me saving you from getting your brains blown out." She replied sarcastically. "Now cut the chatter and focus, I ain't carrying your ass to the rally point." She snapped.

The Turian looked like he wanted to argue, but the other Turian just put a hand on his shoulder and shook their head.

None of them said anything for a long while as they moved through the wreckage and debris caused by the EA car bombs and suicide bombers. So many dead; and Wrex knew that heads would roll for this, it just depended on who.

"This isn't right." The Asari officer finally said.

"Yeah… but we'll make 'em pay." The human replied wearily, already huffing from the speed walking they were doing.

"No… I mean, somethings wrong with this attack. It makes no sense to me." She said timidly.

The racist Turian sniffed disdainfully; "They're humans, it doesn't need to make sense."

Archer ignored the Turian and flashed a quick look at the girl; "Keep talking, what do you mean by that?" She asked.

The Asari looked hesitant for a moment, then said; "Well… why would they attack the Zakera ward marketplace? It's one of the least populated areas in the upper ward, close to the presidium; they attacked all the other Wards and the Presidium, but that seemed like it was just a distraction. It feels like their main focus is here in this specific area; I think they're looking for something." She explained.

Even Wrex was now contemplating what the girl had said.

It made sense if one thought about it; human terrorists, even battle trained and experienced ones, would oftentimes just rush into crowds spraying as much gunfire as they could muster. Car bombs and suicide bombers were just thrown in for good measure.

But here?

The Cargo Hauler that had crashed into the Presidium, which he had heard from the human officer, now made much more sense. It was both to send a message of fear to EA's enemies, but it was also meant to distract them from the real threat here in the Markets.

The question was; what were they looking for?

A good puzzle to figure out later, right now they needed to focus and make sure they got to the rally point that Archer had said would contain more of her friends from the Alliance. Another good puzzle, as Wrex wasn't quite sure who Archer worked for in the Alliance; but they did good work and got shit done. "How far?" He asked impatiently; the Human officers huffing had increased to panting, which was quickly turning annoying.

"A couple mikes, we already had two guys at this place in case any EA guys tried to attack the hospital." She replied.

The other Turian, a female at that, had kept quiet up until now; but she snapped her head over to glare at Archer. "You humans knew this attack would happen, and you did nothing to stop it?!" She exclaimed.

Now Archer got mad, and Wrex knew it because the human rushed forward in the blink of an eye; and grabbed the Turian by the throat and held her up in quite the impressive display of strength.

For a human at least.

"Now you listen here you little shit… We did not know about it. One of our men got injured on Eden Prime, so we took him here; the hospital in the Markets is free and charitable, and we donate to the place. In exchange, she treats any wounded we bring her; no questions asked, works great for Black Ops when we need to leave no paper trail.

We were afraid EA would try and slip in and slit his throat when no one was looking; now then, I'm going to put you down, and I don't want to hear another word from you or your friend unless we're under attack.

Or else I will make sure you can't talk ever again..." The woman growled.

The two Turians squawked, and looked terrified for a moment; the maiden and the human looked like they might lose control of themselves, while Wrex just looked on, slightly impressed in spite of himself.

_Ha, looks like humans have at least some hope after all._

* * *

After the last confrontation; Archer took point, no one saying a word now.

The C-SEC officers having been sufficiently cowed into staying quiet; while Wrex and Archer were too professional to make idle chatter in a war zone. The sounds of gunfire between C-SEC response teams and the terrorists was almost constant; it brought him back to the Krogan rebellions almost.

If there was one thing unnerving about humans, it was just how savage they could be when sufficiently motivated.

"We're coming up on the clinic now; get ready to run in case EA ambushes us." Archer hissed.

Wrex, kept his ear canals open; the gunshots were off in the distance, but the human soldier was right in that regard. EA could very easily have set up an ambush for anyone trying to get to Dr. Michel's clinic.

They reached the street the clinic was on; the dead lay everywhere, dozens of dead civilians along with a handful of C-SEC officers and EA fighters were on the ground.

But surprisingly, there were no wounded left on the ground.

Everywhere else had been practically dead and empty with the exception of EA fighters setting up ambushes; and people who had survived the initial attack, but were too injured to flee to safety. Some were crawling to nearby apartments and buildings; others had tried to move away from the group, all of it giving everyone the sensation that the ground itself was moving.

The officers had wanted to try and move the wounded; but Archer had coldly told them that there was nothing they could do to help them except liberate the markets and destroy the jammer.

This place, in quite the contrast, was downright peaceful.

Archer held up a fist and crouched; everyone followed suit while Wrex prepped his biotics. Archer tilted her head, the shouted "Thunder!"

"Flash!" A human male shouted back from inside the clinic; its windows and doors barricaded with debris from the street.

Those words meant nothing to Wrex and the C-SEC officers; but Archer visibly relaxed, "Any hostiles?" She called out.

"None for the past half hour, now get in here." The man shouted back.

Archer stood and snapped, "Go!" And sprinted across the street to the doorway; where the barricade had been moved to allow people to squish inside. The C-SEC officers followed suit, running as fast as their exhaustion would let them.

Then the fat human officer's poor endurance finally cost him.

_Bang!_

The man screamed in pain as the round blasted through his barriers and went into his thigh; blood pouring from the wound as he fell to the ground. Wrex cursed as Archer popped out from the doorway; frantically scanning the area to see where the shot had come from.

_Bang!_

A chemical fired bullet slammed into the pillar Archer had taken cover; centimeters from her face. The human Black Operator snapped her head back in surprise; before reaching into her pack, digging around for something.

Wrex for his part was trying to think of how to sprint across without getting hit; just because he could take a hit didn't mean that he wanted to get shot.

He looked back across, and saw Archer attach something to her helmet; some sort of stiff cable.

She bent the end of the cable not attached to her helmet around the corner of the pillar to check the general direction of where the shot had come from. The Human officer on the ground was slowly crawling towards the clinic, leaving a blood trail on the ground.

Seeing this made Wrex ground his teeth; the officer potentially dying didn't bother him.

The strong survived and the weak died, that was how it worked. But this was sadistic torture; the sniper had only crippled the man to lure more victims into his kill zone, rather than hunt for them legitimately.

Archer whistled, and Wrex looked over at her.

_Bang!_

A round smacked into the ground in front of the wounded officer; and the man stopped in his tracks, fear practically radiating off of him. It seemed that the EA sniper wasn't done playing with his prey yet.

Archer tapped her helmet, and made a gesture that at first didn't make any sense to Wrex; then he realized what she intended to do.

Looking around, he saw a dead Asari lying on the ground near him; and he biotically pulled the corpse to his waiting arms. Then, using his biotics, he made the Asari peek out from behind the building he was stuck behind.

_Bang!_

The dead Asari's head exploded, and Wrex allowed her to drop to the ground like the sniper had just killed her.

Archer visibly tensed, and twisted her body around; and Wrex knew that she had spotted the sniper nest. She took off the wire-thing attached to her helmet, and got her rifle into the proper firing position; and Wrex wasn't sure, but it looked like she had moved her left hand onto that second trigger in front of the magazine for her gun.

She pointed at the human officer, whose skin was slowly turning grey from blood loss; and Wrex nodded.

She held up three fingers.

_Three…_

_Two… _

_One..._

* * *

_Bang!_

Haafil el-Dar looked through his sniper scope; a grin on his face. He hadn't had this many targets to choose from since the last attack on the Batarians back on Tajicstan. Blood stained the Alien generated snow; blue, red, yellow, all of it mingling together into one ugly color.

He watched as the Human traitor he had wounded stop dead in their tracks; fear radiating from the collaborator, his blood mingling with the rest. _Good…_ He thought.

Haafil's Skell Tech Magnetic Coil-Chemical Projectile Sniper Rifle was primed and ready to kill the infidels. This thing was one of a kind amongst the organization; it probably cost a full crate worth of weapons and ammo just to buy from a black market dealer.

But the buy had been worth it; for this weapon had dealt Allahs wrath to many infidels.

He was known by many on Tajicstan by his birth name; but to the intelligence community and the parts of the galaxy that bothered to actually keep track of events on his home world, he was known by another name.

_Abn Awaa…_ The Jackal.

Close to two-hundred confirmed kills of both aliens and humans, and now; he had two more victims in his sights.

He was an educated man; having served in the Systems Alliance, hoping to bring his family honor and wealth, even being selected for N-school and making it to N1. But then _Alwahsh_, the Batarian Beast known as Admiral Gar'dawar, had invaded Tajicstan with his "Rouge Army".

But Haafil hadn't cared; he had gone to his superiors and demanded that they do something to help his people. They had refused; Tajicstan, and by extension Urzikstan and New Kurdistan were independent colonies, and as a result the Systems Alliance had no obligation to help them.

He had quit that day and went to fight on Tajicstan.

His bitterness against the Alliance came to a head when they stopped sending aid to the resistance fighters out of fear of sparking a war with the Batarians. Then the Imam approached him and promised retribution against both the Systems Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony. He had fought with The Eye of God ever since.

He casually checked the time on his tactical-monocle; which covered his left eye.

It glowed a dull red to help preserve his night-vision; and it gave him the appearance of a one eyed demon to his enemies.

_I must leave soon; the Prowler will be collecting us about half an hour._ He thought idly.

As much fun as he had been having; he knew that his time here was coming to a close. All of the conscripts and the preselected martyrs would stay to fight and die to the bitter end; to buy time for himself and the rest of _Aldhiaab _to board the escape craft and flee Council territory back to Tajicstan.

Back to the Imam's waiting arms.

The Jackal frowned and shifted himself to a better shooting position; the mysterious Alliance trooper that had taken cover at the entrance of the clinic was moving behind it, he could see that much.

_What are you playing at? _He wondered to himself.

Then to the left, he saw a hint of blue peek out from behind the ally.

Haafil snapped left; setting the scope on the head of the Asari as she looked out onto the street. Even as he instinctively fired, he cursed himself angrily. He had seen the closed eyes and pale complexion just as he had pulled the trigger; a decoy meant to expose himself, and he had fallen for it.

He should probably flee, but for a moment he was struck with indecision. Run, or finish off the traitor and spare him the unpleasant fate of bleeding to death; he was a soldier, not a monster after all.

Then a blur of orange to the left drew his attention.

A Krogan was sprinting across the street, bending down to scoop up the human on the ground as he ran. Movement to the right drew his attention; and he spotted the Alliance soldier.

_What is she…?_ His eyes bulged out of his head. _That's not fair!_

He yanked his rifle up and locked it to the back of his Exo-skeleton assisted armor; then he rolled to the right under a nearby table, kicking it over so that it was between him and the rest of the room.

_thump…BOOM!_

The explosion blew out the windows and overloaded his audio receptors; blowing them out and leaving behind silence as it reset to its default noise cancelling setting. Shrapnel tore through everything in the room, including the table that had acted as his improvised cover.

But it was enough to allow his barriers to weather the blast without breaking.

After a few seconds, the fire and fury subsided; and Jackal peeked his head over the now scorched table, making sure the soldier had left no other surprises for him. Once he was sure it was safe; he dug into his pack and pulled out the spy-cable; peeking the microscopic camera out of the nearby shattered window.

The Soldier, Krogan, and Officer were gone, likely having fled inside to the clinic; where there were an infinite number of exits and potential escapes.

_Beep!_

The Jackal blinked, the warning telling him that time was up, and pickup would be here soon. He huffed at leaving unfinished business, but this was not the place he desired to die.

He stood and brushed the glass and wood shards off of his black jumpsuit and Exo-armor; his camo-cloak still functioning and warping its coloration to blend into his surroundings. It was time to leave, and fight another day.

Haafil gave a wry smile to the Soldier that had bested him; a rare occurrence to be sure, and a challenge above all else.

"_Clever woman; I hope to duel again should Allah allow it." _He muttered in Arabic, unaware of the security camera in the corner of the room that had survived the explosion; and something he hadn't had time to sweep for.

The camera had picked up every word he had said in his short sentence; then, from the camera's point of view he vanished from all visible spectrum's, like a ghost.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Ward Markets; 2040 hours**

Phil crushed the terrorist's throat; growling as he did so, the bastards eyes bugging out of his head as he clutched desperately at his throat.

He dropped the sack of shit to the ground; not even sparing the man a glance as he kept moving towards the rally point. Aethyta didn't say a word as she clenched her fist; biotically snapping another terrorist's neck.

Neither had said a word once they had gotten their bearings and talked over what their next actions should be. Both of them were people of action rather than words. But under his oxygen mask and snarling bear bandanna; Phil was silently fuming over everything that had happened today.

He had grown up in post-Soviet Russia, a very uncertain place; and a place rife with violence.

He wasn't unfamiliar with violence and death; he had seen much death during his days in his gang. They had done many crimes before he found himself in this universe; but one thing that was misunderstood about gangs was that they did have a sense of honor.

Above all else, they never involved civilians in their business; and children were never to be harmed in any way, ere the person that did the deed found himself on the receiving end of his former comrades guns.

But he had never seen something like this before in his life.

When he had woken up from getting launched like a cannon ball; he had found a dead Asari child staring lifelessly at him, and that had shaken him more than he liked to admit. Dead and wounded civilians were everywhere; enough lay there that it was possible to walk from one place to another without touching the ground.

There had been dozens of EA fighters, taking any civilians not dead or dying and shoving them into Fists bar; their fate anything but good.

Aethyta had landed next to him; with no sign of Archer or Wrex, or any friendly C-SEC officers in sight.

The two of them had been missed by the roaming squads of terrorists; and the two of them, outnumbered and with no way to call for help, had made the tactful decision to withdraw and regroup back to Dr. Michel's clinic. Hopefully Obram, Garth, or Nomad would be there to coordinate proper responses.

Movement to his left caught his attention.

Phil whipped his SAW around, bringing it to bear on the shimmer of air. He froze, eyes darting around; Aethyta looked around in confusion, "Phil… there's nothing there." She said haltingly. Phil narrowed his eyes; _I've seen that shimmer before._ He thought to himself, but he lowered his SAW slowly; trying his best to throw off his paranoia.

But as he started to walk away, the wall shimmered.

_"Дерьмо!"_ He screamed, moving as fast as his two meter and 115 kilogram frame could muster.

Stars exploded across his vision as Phil went tumbling across the ground; slamming his back into a nearby wall, knocking the wind out of him. He fumbled for his SAW, only to realize that it was no longer in his hands; nor was it hanging by its straps or his body.

Phil looked up to see one of the biggest and most muscular humans he had ever seen in his life.

The man's armor was black and varying shades of grey; and he wore an Exo-skeleton, the pieces glinting slightly from moisture accumulated from snow. His face was covered with an oxygen mask; but what turned Phils blood cold was his helmet and visor.

They held slight differences in aesthetics, but they were clearly of the same make; in fact, you could assume he was an evil twin of sorts, since his left eye was tinted with a blood red HUD as opposed to the light blue GST operators used.

The man was easily 2.2 meters tall, and had to be at least 136 kilograms of pure muscle.

On the ground to the man's left was Phils SAW; the strap torn, not cut, torn from the man yanking it out of Phils grasp. His left hand was empty, although he was slowly unclenching it; indicating that had been the hand he had punched Phil with.

In his right hand, held by the throat, was a Salarian; his armor and clothing marking him as a member of the STG.

Phil looked to his left, and saw Aethyta struggling to her feet; a massive bruise forming at her temple, and she held her stomach wincing, likely having been kicked by this giant of a man. Her face beheld an expression that Phil had never seen in his life, nor did he ever hope to see it again; an Asari Matriarch was looking at a presumably non-biotic foe, that wasn't a Krogan Battlemaster, with an expression of pure fear.

_That does not inspire confidence;_ he thought sardonically.

The giant man tilted his head as the STG agent choked and flailed helplessly. Then he spoke in a language Phil hadn't heard since his days as a gangster back in his home universe; one he had learned as necessity, one that he could barely speak, and couldn't read or write. One that he could somewhat understand, and one he had never hoped to hear again in his life.

Chechen.

"_So you are the ones the Imam desired me to test… Perfect…" _He growled, his voice more akin to a bears than a human.

The STG agent twisted in the terrorists grasp and looked at Phil and Aethyta, and managed to choke out one last word; "RUN!" Then the man squeezed his fist, and the Salarians neck broke with a loud _crunch!_

He threw the Salarian to the ground, and then he charged like a bull; ignoring the pistol in his holster, and the guns on the ground.

Phil swore and rolled away from the giant of a man; while 'thyta drew her assault rifle and blasted away at the stranger, trying desperately to kill him before he got too close. But the stranger's barriers were abnormally strong, and seemed to be top of the line; as he just bulled through the slugs as if they weren't even there.

Aethyta hopped backward while throwing a warp at the man, but he kept coming.

He lashed out, and grabbed ahold of 'thytas Assault Rifle and ripped it from her grasp; before lifting her up by the throat. Aethyta threw a biotically charged punch at the man, but he threw her into Phil; who had been rushing towards his SAW to try and get some firepower to help even the fight.

The two battle hardened veterans went tumbling into a wall; 'thyta choking and gasping for air, Phil shaking the stars out of his eyes. An animalistic growl stopped them both and they looked up at the stranger.

He held up Aethyta's Assault Rifle, one hand on the stock and the other on the barrel; and the man pushed down.

_SNAP!_

The rifle broke in half like it was a dry twig. The stranger tossed the broken remains into the snow. "No weapons, only ability and body." He growled in broken English. Phil slowly stood and shook his arms, while Aethyta shrugged her shoulders and flared her Biotics; if it was a knife fight the man wanted, then a knife fight he would get.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Ward Markets; 2045 hours**

I kicked over the body of the dead terrorist to make sure he really was dead.

Normally I wouldn't be so paranoid; but getting shot in the back once already had banished any thought of being anything but methodical. Frankly that had been my own fault for actually thinking the EA fighters were nothing more than idiots with guns.

At least half of these guys had been fighting the Batarians for over a decade; of course they had to get creative.

"This is Alpha 1-1 on all frequencies, can anyone hear me over?"

_"…"_

"Dammit…" I growled unhappily, it was clear that no transmissions were getting through, I turned back to Tali, who was still fumbling around with her AK-64; she was able to use it at least, I had to take what I could get at times like this.

"You okay?" I asked as she walked up to me.

"There… there are so many bodies…" She gasped, and I could see tears pricking her eyes through her purple visor; her mercury colored eyes dimming from despair.

"I know…" I replied sadly, "I know it sounds cheesy, but it gets easier as time goes on; just try not to think about it too much."

She gave a choked laugh, "It sounds like a line from a bad action vid."

I just chuckled and shook my head, when a very familiar noise drew my attention.

_Boom!WHOOSH!_

An RPG round went sailing into the sky, striking a skycar that was heading for the markets. I watched in silent fury as the skycar was struck; a massive explosion ripping the left side of the car to shreds.

The pilot, to their credit, tried to set it down immediately; but there was very little he could do to stop the crash that was coming. Tali and I watched as the skycar disappeared behind a line of apartments; leaving a trail of smoke.

"We need to go help them." I said, startling Tali next to me.

"W-why?" She stammered.

I pointed, "See that other skycar? I think those are our reinforcements, and EA will capitalize on them being downed like that." I explained, starting into a jog. "C'mon, let's go!" I ordered.

Tali gave a loud groan, but did so; already panting from all the walking and fighting we had done from the point we had woken up.

As we jogged, I kept my head on the swivel; knowing Tali was too exhausted and undisciplined to do the same, meaning I had to act as the eyes and ears for the both of us; not a fun prospect to say the least.

I could already hear the Mass Effect based guns and the cracks of the terrorists AK's, meaning that at least some people had survived the crash. Then I heard a series of familiar sounds that made me double my speed.

.50 caliber Beowulf gunshots; that meant my fellow Ghosts were in trouble.

* * *

**The Citadel, Zakera Ward Markets; 2047 hours**

Garrus snarled as he fired his pistol at the terrorists.

He never thought he would see the day when an unguided rocket could prove to be a legitimate threat to aircraft; but here he was.

"Rose, take the left side! Sergeant, targets on the right! Cover me while I get Castle out!" The human soldier called Rook bellowed at them.

Garrus had served in the navy; not the Army, but he still had regular combat training, and his days in C-SEC were coming in handy. The EA fighters were not very good soldiers; they could fight, and they were spirited, but with a few exceptions most just fired from the hip and held down the trigger.

"Are all of them this bad?" Garrus asked as he instinctively ducked as an AK round smacked into the skycars frame.

"Most of them are conscripts; they literally believe that Allah will guide their bullets to their enemies. If Allah wants you to die, you die. The competent ones are the ones that shot us down." Rose replied as she fired her giant assault rifle.

Garrus snorted in distaste; shooting another terrorist in the head.

_Boom!SWOOSH!_

All of them ducked as another unguided rocket streaked over their heads; sailing off into the distance. Garrus immediately drew the AK he had scavenged from earlier and sighted the terrorist using the rocket launcher.

He sighted the man hiding behind a burned out skycar; fumbling with the launcher as he tried to load another shot. Garrus shifted slightly and fired.

The blood splatter that hit the nearby building confirmed the kill.

Garrus smirked as the other skycar carrying Jane and her team swooped into crash site; Jan and two Marines piling out of the skycar, firing away with their Avengers. The terrorists seemed to panic, as many tried to flee down a nearby alleyway; only to get cut down by an unseen opponent.

Garrus made sure to keep an eye on that area, since it meant there were armed civilians taking the fight to EA; or friendly C-SEC officers were in the area.

Jane for her part, seemed to be the very image of tranquil fury; her gaze was laser focused on shooting any terrorists that exposed themselves whatsoever. The two Marines that were helping her had that same look on their faces; firing their avengers in short bursts, hitting anything that moved.

The SAD operators however, were calm and collected; one tapping enemies with an accuracy that rivaled his own. It took only a few minutes; but they killed every single EA fighter that had attacked them.

Garrus moved to shoot the last one in the head with his pistol; then watched in surprise as the man dropped to the ground dead, a hole in the head.

"We Clear!?" He heard Jane shout nearby.

"Clear!" Castle shouted in reply.

"We got someone down towards that alleyway, potential friendly." Garrus informed everyone.

Everyone quickly moved into cover close to him; keeping their eyes outward towards the alleyway he had pointed out.

"Thunder!?" Jane shouted, which made no sense to Garrus, but it made sense to the person hidden in the alley.

"Flash!" A human male's voice drifted back to them.

Jane gave a nod, "He's friendly; c'mon out, we're blue!"

The was a long pause, then Garrus blinked as he spied a human dressed very similarly to the Alliance SAD operators with them; although the camouflage humans seemed to favor had a tan and brown coloration.

His rifle was hanging from his shoulders, swinging around his abdominal area; his hands raised as he walked towards them.

"Castle, is that you?" the human asked.

"Yeah it's me Nomad, good to see you boss." Castle shouted back, visibly relaxing.

"Got a friendly civvie with me; she's armed, please don't shoot her because she's got valuable Intel." Nomad called back.

"No promises here boss." Castle joked.

Nomad looked behind him back towards the alley and seemed to say something.

Garrus spread his mandibles in surprise, while Jane and her Marines raised their eyebrows in surprised; Castle, Rose, and Rook didn't seem at all surprised, but they seemed able to hide their emotions better than other humans.

It was a Quarian woman. _I wonder what she's doing out here?_

* * *

**Zakera Market Place, Crash Site; 2050 hours**

"They'll shoot me…" Tali whimpered.

"They ain't gonna shoot you; I'll make sure they don't." I reassured her.

Tali looked down at her feet, then took a breath and walked out; shaking slightly in fear. She unconsciously hid herself behind me, which wasn't hard since she was shorter than me. Another difference in this universe it seemed, since Tali was supposed to be taller than me since I was only 5'7"; but I had at least one or two inches on her.

I walked towards them, one hand on my Beowulf while I kept the other raised so they didn't get trigger happy.

I walked up to the crashed skycar, wincing as I climbed over some rubble, and sat down with a loud grunt. Everyone else had already started to relax, most everyone took a knee or sat down on some rubble to catch their breath.

I couldn't blame them; I just wanted to take a nap or something right now.

"Everyone green?" I asked.

"We're good sir." Rose replied.

"Who are you?" Williams demanded, looking very suspicious; I gave her a sideways look, recalling that comment she had made about my appearance when she thought I was gone.

"I'm that major you called a slob, Gunnery Sergeant." I replied, allowing a hint of steel to enter my voice, mostly just to mess with her; pulling my bandanna down and pulling off my oxygen mask as I did so.

Shepard, Alenko, and Williams immediately recognized me; Shepard and Garrus gave me a hard look, while Alenko and Williams jaws dropped. Castle, Rose, and Rook just rolled their eyes at me and turned their attention back outward; Tali stared at my face like she was trying to memorize it.

I smirked as I saw recognition cross through Shepard and Garrus's faces; "August!" Shepard exclaimed.

I gave them a smile that threatened to split my face in half; "Good to see ya Ell Tee." I replied, holding my hand out to shake; "You got promoted I see."

Shepard took my hand and shook vigorously; "Same to you Major; where's the rest of your team?" She asked, while Alenko and Williams seemed to get over their shock after a moment.

The smile dropped from my face; "We got separated in the chaos; we were trying to protect this young woman because she was carrying valuable intelligence." I replied, pointing a thumb at Tali; who started at my mentioning her.

"What intel would that be?" Alenko questioned, as it looked like Williams was too nervous about offending me to say anything.

I turned to look at Tali; "Hey Tali, think you could play for them that message you showed me?" I asked.

Tali nodded and began typing on her omnitool; "This right here is why EA has thrown a battalions worth of fighters at the station; they wanted this recorded message Ms. Zorah managed to salvage from a dead Geth unit. This whole attack was so they could find and kill her." I explained.

I saw Tali wince out of the corner of my eye, and I stopped talking.

I had explained the same thing to her already; and she was insistent on blaming herself, that if she had simply dumped the message, the attack wouldn't have happened. I tried to tell her otherwise, but she was stubborn.

I just lowered my head as she played the message.

"_Why must we attack Eden Prime Saren? It serves no purpose beyond agitating the Alliance into potential war with my People, worse it encourages the Free Hegemony factions that are growing throughout Batarian space. Our attempts to loosen the restrictions on the lower classes have only made things worse."_

"Who is that?" Williams asked as everyone looked at Tali.

I scowled, "I know that voice," I only somewhat fibbed; "That's the former Batarian Spectre Balak; he's a notorious pirate admiral now. I've tangled with his forces a few times, and they have a mean streak a mile wide." I growled.

Shepard gave me a sideways look; then nodded at Tali to continue the message.

"_Eden Prime contains another Beacon; and it could potentially lead to the Crucible. We must find it at all costs if we are to prevent the Alliance from asserting its dominance in the Galaxy."_

"That's Saren." Garrus snapped angrily.

"_Stopping humanities ascendancy means nothing if Gar'dawar continues brutalizing non-aligned worlds; and it means nothing if humanity declares war on my people, this attack will drive them over the edge."_

Myself and my fellow Ghosts looked at each other; it caught us off guard that Balak was being the more reasonable of the two.

"_Once we commit to our attack, the Imam has promised me that he will attack the Citadel within 72 hours. It will kill any sympathy the public has for the Alliance; and it will stop any retribution efforts by the Alliance Parliament while they try to shut the Imam down to draw ire away from them. The Council will blame humanity as a whole for the attacks; you know how it works; the puppet dictators only see things in absolutes."_

Tali was practically bristling with anger, and I knew why; Saren was right, the Council blamed whole species rather than just the people responsible. It was the whole reason the Quarian people were nearing extinction.

"_This had best work Saren; ere I track you down and I gut you myself." _Balak ground out.

"_It is the Imam you must worry about, he may be a part of this plan but his forces will not distinguish between us and everyone else. He is sending his _Aldhiaab_ to the Citadel to test those Alliance Operators he calls _Aljamajim._ Just make sure you stay out of his way, I will see you on Eden Prime." _Saren replied, signing off in the recording.

It took all my self-control to not demand that Tali replay that last bit in a panic. I looked at the other Ghosts, and saw my thoughts mirrored in their eyes.

_Aljamajim _translated to "The Skulls" from Arabic to English; which almost certainly referred to us. Even if we all had different designs and themes to our bandannas, the majority of Ghosts had a skull theme to their bandannas; not all of us, but still a healthy portion had a skull theme.

But it was the other term that caught our attention; and one the made it feel like someone was driving a corkscrew up my back. The Imam had referred to a group called _Aldhiaab_; the people he had sent to "test us" as Saren had put it.

_Aldhiaab_, translated to English, meant "The Wolves".

It could very easily have been a coincidence; but in our line of work, coincidences were a work of fantasy and fiction. It was something we used to hand wave away stuff we couldn't explain, or didn't care too.

It made too much sense now; how Saren had seemed to have always been one step ahead of us, how EA had managed to smuggle in so much men and material. I had put my oxygen mask back on and pulled my bandanna back up so no one could see how pale my face had gotten.

_Impossible…_ I thought, but it was something that I should have accounted for in the first place.

The Imam… was a traveler.

* * *

**A/N: Still taking submissions for GST Side Stories; PM me, or leave a message in the discord server if you're interested.**

**-So… The Imam is a Traveler, who here saw that coming? This guy!**

**Now things make a little bit more sense for poor August, but he is simply assuming the Imam is indoctrinated like Saren and presumably Balak. He doesn't know what Shepard kinda knows, and what Saren knows for sure.**

**-And yes, I did shamelessly use Polish and Russian with google translate and mixed it with canonical Kheelish words for Tali. Before you ride me for it, please bear in mind that I TRIED! I fucking looked all over the internet to see if anyone had come up with some dictionary of canon words in Kheelish; or if some dedicated fan had decided to make their own version of it with the words we have.**

**Nothing.**

**So I just went with an abominational mash of Polish and Russian since Tali's voice actor intended the accent to be something vaguely Eastern European; and I went with the two that came to my mind first. I didn't include Belarusian because I felt like that would just make it worse, and make things harder for me in the long run.**

**Trust me when I say, this translator issue is going to be an important plot point later on.**

**Edit: Oh, I forgot my Obligatory sign out speeches.**

**Please Give me a TV Tropes page, i really want one guys.**

**Leave a review as always, but please don't be a dick.**

**And I will see ya when i see ya.**


	14. Hostages

**February 21****st**** 2183 CE/AD; 2055 hours**

_/Major General Hyrum Grant (HG) has entered the Chat_

_/Vice Admiral Steven Hackett (SH) has entered the Chat_

_/Prime Minister Amul Shastri (AS) has entered the Chat_

_AS:__ Hyrum, Steven; what in the hell is happening on the Citadel right now? I'm getting transmissions from every single race that has an embassy demanding to know why we've attacked the Citadel._

_SH:__ Us? It's Eayan Allah that's carried out these attacks._

_HG:__ They don't know that; Amul what did you tell them?_

_AS:__ What do you think I told them? We have nothing to do with it, and we're just as much in the dark as they are. Now tell me what's happening so that I can tell them._

_HG:__ C-SEC, STG, and the Spectres fucking dropped the ball, that's what's happened. I've been trying to pass warnings along official and unofficial channels to all of our counterparts in other species intelligence agencies; and they all just blew me off, or refused to believe me since I wasn't their race._

_AS:__ Do we have any Para-military assets on the ground?_

_SH:__ Captain Anderson's ground team, and the Embassy's Marine Garrison; but that's it. C-SEC isn't trained to handle this kind of attack; none of the council races are trained to handle an attack like this, quite frankly, so we have no Para-Military assets capable of counter-terrorism._

_HG:__ We have _three_ Para-Military assets on the station. _

_AS:__ GST Agents? Well where are they then?_

_HG:__ My three fireteams? They're trapped somewhere in the middle of the chaos right now._

* * *

_**Breaking News!**_

_Today, a massive attack has taken place on the Citadel._

_The Human radical religious terrorist organization known as Eayan Allah, or "The Eye of God" has claimed responsibility. The attack seems to be winding down now, as most positions held by the terrorists have been overwhelmed and destroyed._

_Casualty reports are already coming in; over two hundred and fifty dead civilians, including children. Over one hundred wounded, many critically; all are currently being rushed to hospitals around the citadel._

_Added to that, are over fifty dead C-SEC officers and other first responders; along with approximately one hundred wounded._

_Deputy Executor Pallin reports that the situation is currently stabilizing, and that most EA strongholds are currently being cleared out, and order is being restored to the station._

_Please stay tuned to Citadel News Network for more updates._

* * *

**Zakera Market Place, Dr. Michel's Clinic**

Archer walked out of the entrance to the Clinic, using her spycamera to peek the corner to make sure there were no remaining hostiles in the area; switching to thermals to double check that the EA fighters and that sniper really were gone.

The cold and the snow weren't doing her many favors, but she had dealt with worse conditions before.

Archer shook her head as she turned around and walked back into the clinic; ignoring the C-SEC officers and armed civilians that were now guarding every entrance into the damned place. She did her best to not look at the wounded as she walked past the cots; they were set so close together that they may as well have been packed like sardines.

The children in particular were heartbreaking to look at.

Tearing her attention away from the injured and the dying; Archer walked to the staffing areas of the clinic, where Obram was working frantically to try and break through the jamming. Brooks and Colt were playing gofers while Wrex stood nearby, looking almost bored as he checked to make sure his weapons were still one hundred percent.

Garth stood next to the GST Case Officer, holding his side with one hand and wincing from his still unhealed injuries; but the Ghost was typing so fast with his other hand, that his fingers were practical blurs.

"Obram… are you sure this is going to work?" Archer asked the human turned Batarian with an uncertain expression on her face. All the computers and omnitools hooked up to each other were in very haphazarded ways was not inspiring much confidence in her.

"No, but this is the best I got at the moment to clear the jamming; ah, please hand me the hacking VI core?" He asked, not even looking away from where he was working.

Archer looked to her left, and grabbing the VI chip, she handed it to the Batarian; Obram quickly hooked up some wires and typed in some lines of code into his omnitool, then stopped and stared at the VI core. After a few minutes of staring at it, he finally said; "Okay… I'm done, now the question is whether or not this blows up in my face; or it causes permanent hearing loss when I activate it."

Wrex gave Obram a hard look, "I think I would prefer that it blows up in your face four eyes; I very much value my hearing."

Obram ignored him, and typed in a command into his omnitool as Colt and Brooks walked up to him; "Well… is it ready?" Colt asked impatiently.

"Yeah… activating in three… two… one…" Obram closed his eyes and hit enter.

"_EEEEEEEEEEEEE"_

* * *

**Zakera Market Place, Residential Area's**

Phil slammed into the wall, grunting in pain.

He quickly rolled to the left as the giant EA Spec Operator smashed his armored boot into the ground where Phil had just been seconds before. The EA fighter growled like a bear as he quickly pushed off and charged after the fleeing Russian.

Movement to the giants left quickly caused him to bring up his gauntleted arms to block an anticipated blow.

_KLANG!_

Aethyta stumbled backwards in surprise, quickly dropping the now twisted metal bar and hopping away from the Giant as he slashed at her with a knife; the bladed weapon more akin to a machete than a knife.

The Matriarch with centuries of experience; and the Soldier with years of training and combat experience mixed with the best tech available to the galaxy were being bested by a Giant of a human with just good armor and close to a decade of combat experience fighting amongst some of the most brutal warfare known to the galaxy.

Phil cursed as he re-engaged his cloak, trying to find one the Giants potential weak spots while 'thyta kept the Chechen occupied with her speed and her biotics; but it was a losing battle and they all knew it.

Their fight had taken them far away from where they had initially engaged each other, meaning that Phil had left his beloved PKM behind; all he had was his Pistol, and the Giants armor and shields made using it effectively all but impossible. Barring shooting from point blank range of course, but there was no way Phil would be able to get close enough to use it.

The Giant was smart too, and surprisingly fast.

He knew what Phil and Aethyta were trying to do; and he was taking measures to make sure neither of them could get close while having access to their guns or knives. The two of them kept up the hit and run tactics; but it was inevitable that they screw up and opened themselves.

And said moment came when 'thyta overextended a biotic punch, which the Giant quickly capitalized on. He immediately grabbed her fist as the biotic energy sputtered out, and the Giant threw his own massive fist and punched the Matriarch in the shoulder; dislocating it with an audible _crack!_

Aethyta yelped in pain, as the Giant clamped onto her now dislocated shoulder like a cobra; working her arm to try and damage it further.

Knowing that he couldn't afford to let the Giant kill her, Phil de-cloaked and leaped forward; slashing his knife at the Giants throat in desperation. Moving with a speed that still surprised Phil, the Giant quickly caught the slash; Suplexing him to the ground, stunning the Russian while knocking the wind out of him.

"_Now you die Russian." _The Giant snarled, grabbing Phil and lifting him up by the throat.

In desperation, Phil did the first thing that came to his mind; he promptly reached up with his hands and broke the Giants pinky fingers. The Giant bellowed in pain, the first time he had done so in their entire fight.

"_You commie mother-"_ He didn't even finish his sentence as he punched Phil right in the nose; sending the Ghost flying back through the air into the nearby wall. Stars exploded across Phil's vision as he tried to stagger to his feet, stumbling and dropping to his knees.

The Giant ducked as Aethyta tried to biotically punch his head off with her good arm; before promptly head-butting her, knocking the Matriarch to the ground in a daze.

The Giant shook his head, "Expected more…" He growled in his broken English, reaching into his combat suit and pulling out a pistol. It was a Desert Eagle, and the thing looked tiny in the Giants hands. He pointed it right at Phils head as the Ghost staggered to his feet, still very unsteady as he stood there. _"Allah take you." _He sneered in Chechen.

Phil closed his eyes waiting for death.

_BLAMBLAMBLAM!_

Phil jumped slightly, as three Mass Effected pistol rounds slammed into the Giants chest.

The first two were stopped by the remains of his kinetic barriers, but the third punched into his armor and tore into his chest. The Giant staggered backwards in surprise, and looked to see where the rounds had come from; the he stopped and his shoulders dropped in what seemed to be shock.

Phil followed the Giants gaze, and his eyes widened as he saw who had shot the man.

The man had tanned skin, close cropped black hair, a thick beard; and he was very pale from blood loss. Red blood stained his clothing; his left leg was a mangled mess, and his lips were blue from hypothermia.

But he held a pistol, aimed shakily at the Giants head.

Phil's blood ran cold when he caught sight of the man's face; _Leo… _He realized in horror. The Ghost had clearly been tortured, and his clothes were very clearly stolen due to how poorly it seemed to fit him. That explained why they hadn't seen head or hair of Phoenix's team, they had been captured; and were probably dead.

The Giant seemed just as surprised; _"You! How did you escape!" _He demanded.

Leo coughed, spitting up blood; "Should have just shot me Juggernaut, _pendejo._" He sneered.

The Juggernaut growled and raised his pistol; before Aethyta surprised him by Biotically kicking him in the stomach, knocking the Giant EA fighter backwards. He quickly regained his footing, but now the Juggernaut faced a pretty big dilemma.

Stay and continue to fight, or flee now while CSEC was still blind.

Circumstances chose for him.

"_EEEEEEEEEEEE"_

"Ah!" Phil, 'thyta, and the Juggernaut all cringed and put their hands to their ears; the wailing shriek in their ears felt like spikes being driven into their eardrums. Leo was unimpeded by the noise, so he started shooting the Juggernaut while the beast was distracted.

The Giant snarled as two more slugs sliced right through his armor, while a third smashed right through his Desert Eagle; destroying the weapon.

_Hiss…_

The Pistol overheated, but it had done its job; the Giant was disarmed and wounded, and the Jammer had been disabled. The voices of dozens of soldiers and Officers filling their ears as communications were reestablished.

Phil and Aethyta staggered to their feet, beaten but not broken.

The Juggernaut growled lowly, putting a hand to his ear as a voice sounded in his own ear. _"We shall meet again Skull." _He spat at Phil in Chechen, before vanishing into thin air; the air shimmering slightly as he ran with surprising speed into the snowstorm.

"_Mierda…_" Leo groaned, dropping the pistol and collapsing to the ground.

"Shit!" Phil and 'thyta rushed to the Ghost, immediately checking his injuries. "Leo, what happened? Where's the rest of your team?" Phil demanded, even as he pumped medi-gel into a pretty big hole in Leo's shoulder.

"dead… EA… captured…" He rasped, quickly losing conciseness.

Phil quickly felt the Ghosts neck, and was relieved to find a pulse; but it was faint, and the poor man was very cold to the touch. "Obram if you're out there, lock onto my position; we have a fallen Ghost and we need immediate CASEVAC."

After a brief moment, a familiar voice came back to him; _"Phil, this is Colt; we read you, relief is on its way, just hold position. We'll get there soon man, just tell them to hang in there."_

Breathing a sigh of relief, Phil began to apply a liberal coating of medi-gel on any wound he could find. Aethyta's hands glowed with Biotics as she made a fist and pressed it onto one of the fallen Ghosts many wounds; any injury she touched began healing, as she Biotically forced the muscle and skin to bind itself back together.

Phil watched in amazement for only a moment before going back to treating the man's injuries; _Just hang in there comrade, help is on the way; just hang in there._

* * *

**Zakera Market Place, Approaching Fist's Bar**

Minute by bloody minute.

Street by body filled street.

We slowly pushed towards Fists Bar where the majority of the EA forces had holed themselves up; stray fighters being mopped up left and right.

None surrendered; and no prisoners were taken.

For myself and my fellow Ghosts, this was simply due to pragmatism. We had all learned the hard way that EA fighters didn't surrender; they would feign it and try to kill or injure you when you went to restrain them.

For Garrus, Tali, Shepard, Alenko, and Williams it was out of anger.

All the deaths around them were simply due to some madmen with delusions of grandeur. And these people were their bludgeons, their enforcers; they didn't deserve mercy as far as Shepard's team was concerned.

"_EEEEEEEEEE!"_

"AH!" I yelped, and cringed while clutching my earpiece; everyone around me doing the same, cringing as the wailing shriek wormed its way down my ear.

Slowly, the shrieking noise faded away to nothing; though my ears were still ringing from it. I hit the side of my helmet as my hearing began to fix itself somewhat; the ringing fading away, allowing me to hear again.

"_Nomad… Nomad do you read me?"_ Garth asked, his familiar southern twang filling my ears.

"Garth! I'm here, I need a SITREP; what the hell's going on out there?" I snapped, seeing out of the corner of my eye that Shepard seemed to listening to someone else; probably Captain Anderson if I were to hazard a guess.

"_Obram, the clever son of a bitch, managed to break the jamming field. Listen, most of the remaining EA fighters have coalesced at Fists bar. They have hostages, but CSEC has finally gotten around to containing the situation. Fist's bar is their last stronghold Major; you need to clear them out." _He replied, filling me in on all that I needed to know.

"Got it Garth, out! Alright! Rally up!" I shouted, making the signal with my arm.

Tali and Garrus might not have known what I was saying, but the rest did, so they just followed their example. Everyone faced outward, while I laid out the situation to them; "Alright, good news is we got COMMs back and reinforcements are on the way; bad news is that the last EA stronghold is near our position. They got hostages, so we need to go and clear the area out. LC you have anything to add ma'am?"

"Negative, Captain Anderson gave them same orders; Williams, Alenko take point. Garrus and Tali bring up the rear, Nomad stay with me; Castle, Rook, Rose flank to the left and cut off any possible escape routes. Understood?"

"Got it." we all chorused.

In one fluid motion; we started jogging to the bar, the snow and the wind making it feel like we were on a death march at this point. We had been fighting for maybe an hour at most; I had lost track of time since my chronometer had been damaged in the initial attacks, but it felt like we had been fighting for days or weeks at this point.

"_Keelah,_ how are we supposed to do this; I feel like I'm going to collapse." Tali gasped, wiping the snow off her purple visor as it melted. I felt a small measure of sympathy for her, since she was no soldier; and Shepard seemed to feel the same way.

"Just dig deep Ms. Zorah; you'll get there, just put one foot in front of the other." Shepard told her.

"Ahh… it's cold as balls out here." Williams grumbled loudly.

"I have to agree with the Gunnery Chief, Turians aren't built for the cold Shepard." Garrus added.

Jane snorted as she swept the street with her assault rifle; "N7 training makes this look like a cakewalk."

"Really? What did they make you do?" I asked as I checked an alleyway as we passed by, my Beowulf's stock fitting snuggly in my shoulder.

"Dropped the entire platoon of trainees in the Himalayas for a week and told us to not die." She said, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

I just laughed, "Yeah, for me they dropped my squad off in the middle of Siberia during winter; and told us to survive a month after giving us a days' worth of ammunition for our guns while running 'operations' to disrupt 'enemy' supply chains." I retorted.

Tali, Alenko, and Williams looked between the two of us for a moment before turning their attention back outwards; but their expressions made it clear that they clearly thought us both nuts.

Shepard looked at me with a smirk; "Oh really? How about hiking through the Amazon jungle while our trainers pursued us with training guns, while we only had a few days to make it to our extraction."

"Ha! A cakewalk, my squads transport 'crashed' in the mountains of Afghanistan on our way back from 'leave'; and we had to hike to 'friendly' territory while scavenging weapons from locals and trainers that got careless."

Garrus just chuckled and said, "Oh spirits, here we go again." Remembering the last time Shepard and I had met. Upon hearing this, Shepard and I both laughed; and we both quieted down as we continued our job to the bar; our brief moment of levity gone, but I felt my spirits lifted somewhat.

I recalled that day back on Arcturus station.

Me and my team, fresh off our first six month "tour" in the Terminus systems; running dozens of missions before the Systems Alliance even knew we existed, and Shepard and Garrus taking an extended vacation from their very stressful lives. The stories traded, the genuine camaraderie the four of us shared with two supposed video game characters had made a lasting impression on me.

It had been years, but it still felt like it had only been a few days.

"We're coming up on the C-SEC perimeter." Shepard said, her tone all business once again.

I grimaced, I really did not want to deal with a bunch of by the book cops that had no clue what they were doing.

As we jogged up, the officer in charge turned and glared at us; but he did not raise his weapon, meaning he knew we were friendlies. Shepard made some gestures, and Alenko, Williams, and Garrus took cover behind the cruisers with the other officers; while Tali and I stayed with her.

"What's the situation Officer?" Shepard asked, walking up to him while ignoring the distrustful glare.

"At least three dozen hostages human, most are alien; we're preparing to assu-" He trailed off while tilting his head, and I knew why; we all heard it.

It was rap music, muffled like it was coming from inside something.

I turned and aimed my weapon up, pointing it at an approaching skycar; two humans were driving it, which began setting the alarm bells in my head off.

If the Officer in charge had been human, I'm pretty sure that his face would be turning red and purple with rage; as it was, he walked forward as I kept my gun on the passenger; knowing that he was a bigger threat if they were armed.

"STOP! STOP YOU DRUNKEN IDIOTS!" The Officer bellowed, as the skycar touched down just in front of the officer; the Turian slamming his fist onto the hood to emphasize his point, denting it in the process.

The driver and passenger rolled down the windows and stuck their heads out.

I could see that the two men, teenagers really, were really drunk and possibly high; that was the only reason that they were outside in a time like this. That and the stupidity of C-SEC at failing to stop these idiots from getting here, if they had been car bombers or terrorists they could have killed us.

"Whoa, whoa dude, chill out man what the hell's got your feathers in a twist?" the passenger asked loudly and drunkenly, his words slurring from alcohol as he talked.

_WHAP!_

The Turians chest exploded, splattering the windshield of the car; and the passenger screamed in terror as blood splattered into his face.

"SNIPER!" someone cried.

AK fire began to bark and crack from down the street; prompting everyone standing to duck behind anything they could find. I raised my rifle and turned on my thermal scopes; searching the buildings for the man that had made the shot.

_Almost… there he is…_

The man was laying prone on the roof of the bar; his heat signature covered somewhat by the snow and the heat of the building. _Clever trick_… I thought to myself with a frown; realizing that this man had probably used the same tactic to keep hidden from Batarian patrols during the brutal Tajicstanii winters.

_But not clever enough. _I thought, slightly smug as I squeezed the trigger.

_BANG!_

I saw the almost white hot blood splatter through my thermal scope; confirming the kill, "sniper down LC!" I shouted.

"Move up, every second we waste gives them more time to kill the hostages." Shepard shouted back.

I grunted, but vaulted over the skycar I had taken cover behind while I activated my cloak.

Ignoring the shouts of surprise, I made my way up the street; making sure to keep to the shadows so that the cloak didn't have to work too hard to keep me hidden. It was about a hundred meter gap; not far, but one filled with crossfire that I really did not want to get hit by.

There were about eight fighters in a semi-circle around the entrance to the Bar, all taking cover behind rubble or destroyed skycars. I quickly reached their right flank, noting that the idiots were focused solely on Shepard and her team; leaving their flanks wide open.

"Castle, SITREP." I asked.

"_We're on these guy's left flank; ready to take them out when you are sir."_ He replied.

I pulled out a grenade from the camo-webbing surrounding my armor. "Mark your targets and standby." I said before switching frequencies. "Shepard, come in."

"_Nomad where are you?" _She demanded.

"On their right flank, can you hold position and keep their attention on you for just a few more seconds?" I asked.

"_Yeah we can; what do you have planned?"_ She asked, sounding more curious than anything else.

"Just watch." I switched back to Castles frequency. "All y'all pick your targets?"

"_All ready sir."_

"Alright, grenade out!" I called, tossing the grenade behind one of the destroyed skycars where two of the EA fighters had taken cover.

_CRACK!_

The ripping sound of the grenade reached my ears as I knelt and fired; my .50 caliber Beowulf tearing through a third terrorists head even as it dropped my cloak. The sound of three more almost simultaneous gunshots echoed through the night; and three more terrorists fell dead.

Shifting my aim, I fired again; even as Castle did the same.

The last two EA fighters dropped dead, not even two seconds after their compatriots had met their own bloody end. "Lane clear to move up Shepard." I said, as I watched the EA fighter fall dead.

To their credit, the C-SEC officers and the future Normandy ground team wasted no time in moving up to the front door of the bar; but it was clear that they were pretty surprised at how quickly the four of us had cleared out the EA defenses.

I re-engaged my cloak, and moved to the front door ahead of the others; making sure I was on the right frequency, "Shepard, I'm moving inside; I have my cloak so I'll be fine. I'll let you know if it's clear." I said, not waiting for the rest to catch up with me.

"_Understood Nomad, you be careful you hear?"_

"Your concern is touching LC." I replied, before switching to Castles frequency; "Castle, take your team around to the back; something feels off with this." I ordered as I walked up to the twisted metal and shattered glass that was the remains of the door.

Grunting, I crawled through a small gap just big enough to let me slip through; wincing at the crunching and tinkling sound of my boots crushing the glass.

There were about five or six more EA fighters on the first floor, and about two dozen dead bodies on the floor.

Most of them I did feel a little sorry for, but they were most likely mercenaries and bounty hunters; considering Fists reputation in this universe. That was the key to survival as a traveler, don't assume you know anything; this wasn't the universe we all knew and loved.

That much was obvious.

"What are you doing? I helped you, and this is how you repay me?!" A very familiar voice shouted his tone drenched in fear.

"Be reasonable Fist, you know that you tried to sell out the Shadow Broker and the Imam; we're simply sparing you from a horribly painful and slow death by Krogan. What you didn't know? That bounty hunter Urdnot Wrex was coming to get you, we did you a favor." A silky, cool, and suave voice retorted, a thick British accent to his voice.

I frowned and moved to the stairs, sticking to the shadows as I made my way up to the balcony; making sure to move slowly so that my cloak didn't produce any shimmering effect. "Shepard, six tangos with a possible HVT inside; I'm linking my feed now." I whispered. It was a force of habit; the Oxygen mask hidden under my bandanna was noise cancelling unless I turned on the external speaker.

But it paid to be careful just in case I forgot to turn it off.

"_Understood, we're stacking up outside now; preparing to breach."_ She replied.

"Hold that for a moment LC, I want to see if these guys have anything important to say."

There was a long pause as I edged up the stairs and onto the balcony; before Shepard said, _"Alright, but the second something happens we're coming in."_

"Copy that."

I edged forward, keeping to the shadows as I finally caught site of the people talking and the hostages. About two dozen assorted Aliens were on their knees with black hoods covering their heads. All of them were tied up so the couldn't move their arms; and they had been tied together so that if any individual tried to move, they would end up dragging everyone else with them.

All the humans and Batarians had been shot in the back of the head.

The Batarians, it was just on principle for EA; any Batarians they saw, they killed. As for the humans, it was likely that EA saw them as "Race Traitors", and killed them as punishment.

But what took me aback was the sight of six Quarians, separated from the rest.

They all sat in a terrified huddle, hands tied and omnitools confiscated; but otherwise left unhindered. There was one dead Quarian however, a male who had been shot in the back of the head; unbounded, and it seemed to me that he had tried to resist.

What was surprising was the amount of Quarians gathered, they must have been really scraping the barrel to find them.

Three females, all of them about Tali's age or my age it seemed; two males, similar age to the females, and then another male about June's age. He was barely old enough to have his own suit; and he was trembling with fear while one of the females held him close, trying to comfort him.

I turned my attention to the four men in the center.

The one I immediately recognized was Fist; his widows peaked military crew cut and clean shaven face standing out amongst the scraggly bearded men in front of him. He was sweating bullets, and he was incredibly pale; his skin almost as white as a sheet of paper.

And I saw why.

He had an S-Vest on his chest; bike locks and chains keeping it stuck to him as he held the detonator. A small pad was attached to his left shoulder, and while the screen was dim I had little doubts that it was a display of sorts.

The other two men were just more EA grunts, flak jackets and AKs mixed with faces set in almost permanent scowls; and long untrimmed homeless man beards and curly hair hanging loose or set in pony tails.

The last man was who really caught my attention.

It was as if he was dressed in a Ghosts Exo-suit that was the complete opposite in aesthetics and coloration in almost every way. My Armor and BDU's had woodland desert camo; this guy had midnight black and dark green. I wore a greyish blue cloak that was worn like a poncho from old westerns.

His Cloak was black as midnight.

My armor was very clearly manufactured, uniform, new, well maintained, and looked almost like it had seen very little use at all. Mine looked like a blend of 21st century armor and dress, mixed with Mass Effect armor and tech.

His armor was cobbled together; and while it was futuristic, it had that old fashioned early 21st century look to it. It was something that the man had likely built himself; and with a box of scraps no less.

My .50 caliber Beowulf with its Mass Effect based underslung shotgun was a harmonious blend of old and new; they looked perfect together.

The man's gun was an AK with a Mass Effected shotgun slapped onto the side of it; barely held together with ropes and duct tape.

His helmet and oxygen mask were carbon copies of mine; just in the Black, grey, and dark green coloration. And his CrossCOMM HUD was a blood red, as opposed to my neon blue.

_Better and better…_ I thought sarcastically, my theory of the Imam being a Traveler becoming more and more likely the longer I looked at this guy.

"Doing me a favor?! By forcing me to blow myself up?! How the fuck is that helping me?" Fist demanded.

"You will be forgiven for your sins against Allah; and your criminal… empire…" The other man said, looking around the ruined bar with clear disdain, "Can be put to good use."

"Please… I can be useful to you alive! I brought you those Quarians!" Fist wailed, clearly getting desperate to find a way out now.

The leader snorted, "You did not bring us the right Quarian Fist. The Imams instructions were clear; bring a Quarian female, purple and black suit and hood and visor; teenager or young adult approximately. Yet you could not even do that properly." He carelessly gestured his AK to the cluster of Quarians who all cowered away from him. "Three females, none of them even have a scrap of purple on them; and three males, one barely old enough to be educated in a school. Honestly, you are not even trying Fist. Saren wanted the Quarian dead, but the Imam saw a use for her. That being said, these Quarians will be useful to the cause; so I do thank you for that Fist."

Fist seemed to finally realize that there was no way out for him now; so he took to cursing and raving at the man, "Fuck you Muhandis! After everything that I have done for you this is how you repay me?!" He spat as he struggled against the chains binding the S-Vest to his body.

"Come now Fist… let's not give our audience anymore drama; isn't that right Skull?"

_Shit!_

I jumped forward and rolled as Muhandis spun around and fired at where I had been hiding. I immediately blasted the other two fighters with my shotgun; barely registering Shepard shouting _"Breech!"_

_BOOM!_

The hostages all screamed in terror while the EA fighters in the lobby all staggered to defensive positions, severely disoriented by the explosion and the hail of gunfire engulfing them.

I brought my rifle to bear on Muhandis; but he surprised me by knocking my rifle out of my hands while slashing a knife at the strap, sending it sliding away from me. Not one to let something like that unbalance me, I drew my k-bar from my chest sheath with my right hand and slashed at the terrorists face; even as I drew my Hi-Standard HDM from my left thigh holster with my other hand.

I emptied five rounds into Muhandis's shielded and armored chest; likely doing no damage to him at all. The HDM was something I only used against unaware or unshielded enemies, the .22 caliber ammunition was useless otherwise.

But I did manage to stagger him, my k-bar scratching his helmet and mask as the man stumbled backwards.

Moving quickly, I holstered the HDM and then tossing my knife to my left hand; quickly aiming a stab at a kink in his armor at the waist. As I did this, I rapidly drew my 9mm Browning from my right hip holster; trying to bring it to bear on his exposed neck.

All of this happening in the span of three seconds.

But the bastard was just as fast as me; he caught my stab with his right hand while he used his left to stop me from drawing my pistol. The both of us straining for a few seconds, then he head-butted me and kicked me in the stomach.

"Oof!" I grunted as I staggered backwards, dragging him with me as I did so.

I could hear his Exo-skeleton whirring as it strained to keep up with mine; and he grunted as he tried to kick my legs out from under me. "No… you… don't…" I growled, shifting my stance and pulling him toward me; them pivoting and throwing him at the nearby pillar.

Muhandis grunted as he hit the pillar, shaking his head to clear his vision. He pulled something from his armor just as I pointed my Browning at his head.

We both froze as we spied what was in our hands.

Muhandis looked right down the barrel of my pistol, probably seeing the 9mm armor piercing round pointed right between his eyes. On my part, I saw the clacker in his left hand; his thumb on the arming switch, and his index finger on the trigger.

"Seems that we are at an impasse Skull." Muhandis snorted, probably smirking behind his oxygen mask.

"That we are Engineer." I snarled back, intentionally using the English wording of his name; knowing that it would probably insult him for not using his native language. Hurried footsteps to my left drew my attention away from him for a split second; but upon seeing it was Shepard and the others, I snapped back to the Engineer.

"Nomad! What ar-" Garrus started to say before I cut him off.

"Don't move! He's got an S-Vest rigged on Fist, and he'll detonate it and kill the hostages if we kill him." I ordered firmly.

"Very smart Skull; now then my terms are simple, I leave through the emergency exit, and I don't turn Fist and all those Quarians into red paste. Sound good?" Muhandis asked, sarcasm dripping into his tone.

"Shepard… you can't jus-" Garrus started to say before Tali furiously interrupted him.

"Just what Turian? Let him go? Those are my people, and they will die if we don't let him leave." She exclaimed.

"He knows a lot about who planned what! It will help us take apart Eayan Allah." Garrus argued.

"You know, I can hear you." Muhandis quipped, giving them a sideways glare.

Shepard didn't take her eyes off the man; but asked, "Nomad?"

"Your call ma'am." I replied, letting her know that I deferred to her judgment; and also because I had no clue which was the better option. But I wasn't going to say that out loud.

Shepard nodded, and then said; "You know, we'll still find you; Lower your weapons guys."

I followed her orders, never taking my eyes off the Engineer; Tali doing the same. While Garrus was more reluctant, a silent glare from Shepard was enough to get him to comply.

Muhandis snorted, "No… you won't; have fun." He said, vanishing into thin air; clearly having similar cloaking technology to the GST.

"_Kheelah"_ Tali gasped, looking stunned at the flagrant display of superior technology.

"Oh shit! It's active!" Fist suddenly shouted; I turned and sprinted over to the man, seeing that the iPhone like pad was indeed now on; with a timer counting down from fifteen seconds.

"Fifteen seconds to disarm it! CLEAR THE FLOOR!" I screamed over the balcony to the C-SEC officers on the ground floor. The officers rushed to comply, scrambling over each other to get out of the building while Shepard, Garrus, and Tali rushed over to me to try and help defuse it.

"_Bosh'tet _it's not Prothean based, I can't hack it." Tali shrieked, rapidly typing into her omnitool.

"Please get it off, I'll tell you all I know, just get it off!" Fist begged, sobbing and panicking as Shepard and Garrus tried to tug the vest off.

"Pull the detonator caps out!" I snapped at them, already in the process of doing so. With plastic explosives, they were harmless without the detonator caps; none of that wire cutting bullshit, or stuff like that. The only problem was that there were so many caps, there was no way we could get them all.

"Five seconds!" Tali yelped.

I looked at Shepard, and we both had the exact same thought.

"Get back!" I shouted, grabbing Tali and throwing her towards the Quarians, while Shepard shoved Garrus away from the balcony.

Then, in one fluid motion; the two of us each grabbed one of Fists arms and legs, and lifted him up. "What are you doing?!"

"Sorry buddy!" I apologized, as Shepard and I threw him over the side.

"NO! Waaaiiiiit!" He screamed.

The two of us jumped as far from the ledge as we could and covered our heads as a loud _Beep _reached our ears.

_KABOOM!_

All the hostages screamed and fell to the ground as the blast wave hit them; even as I got on the comms with Castle. "Castle! We have an HVT by the name of Muhandis fleeing the area; he has cloaking, and is armed. He looks like us, just with a black and grey paint job. Catch him if you can, kill him if you can't."

"_Copy that boss!_" Came his dutiful reply.

I grunted, rolling over onto my back; and observed the Quarians, who Tali was already beginning to cut free. "Everyone alright?" I asked, bringing myself to my feet; and watching as Garrus helped Shepard do the same.

"Yeah, all good;" Shepard confirmed, before she walked over to the rest of the hostages, her hand to her ear; "All units, all E-KIA and the hostages are secure. We're coming out now."

* * *

**A/N: Link to my Discord is ****/U9vgbyx**** if it doesn't work check my profile; as I try to keep that link up to date.**

**Sorry this took so long; I had serious writers block, and I had trouble making the chapter flow cohesively. Sorry if I skipped over most of the action resolving this; but in the end, I couldn't get it to go right.**

**If Nomads "fight" with Muhandis seemed lackluster and lame… that's because it was. If you were expecting something like "Captain America vs Winter Soldier" or John Wick; I'm sorry to say that is not how real life works.**

**When Viggo's assassins go to kill John; the knife fight with the last assassin, for pretty much anyone, would leave you on the floor gasping for air after you finished the guy off. Hand to hand combat is VERY tiring.**

**And Nomad is expressly stated to not be a fighter; He just doesn't have the physic for it. Yeah, he can do it if it's an emergency, but it's something to be avoided like Corona virus if he can help it. (Wow, I just dated this fic by a lot.) And while not seen yet, I heavily implied that Muhandis is the same way.**

**This next bit is going to be very long, but absolutely needs to be said.**

**Black Mesa is an amazing game; the original Half Life was an amazing game. Every single narrative driven single player first person shooter worth its salt has copied the Half Life formula ruthlessly. And many other first person shooters have done the same.**

**I played the original Half Life; and while fun, and while it still manages to hold up reasonably well, I think Black Mesa is more fun, has better visual storytelling, better visuals, better gun play, better everything really. **

**Crowbar Collective did what every good company should do. They looked at what was good, and made it great; and looked at the bad, and made it good or better. **

**The Xen chapters from the original Half Life were generally a bit of a boor; and most everyone agrees that they were the weakest part of the masterpiece of a game overall. The main problem with the Xen levels was that Valve was limited by the tech of their time; they wanted something Lovecraftian, something ethereal, or otherworldly. But they couldn't manage it with the tech and graphics of the time.**

**Now?**

**Black Mesa's Xen levels are by far the funnest, most challenging, and most beautiful levels I have ever played in a first person shooter. My jaw was on the floor the entire time I went through it as I gazed at the other dimensional beauty that is Xen.**

**The Music in the original felt like it was thrown in as an afterthought (The Xen levels I mean, the rest of the original Half Life had great music; some I like better than Black Mesa). In Xen? It feels like a Choir is singing an epic; a tale of how the right man in the wrong place made all the difference in the world.**

**The original Nihilanth? the final boss?**

**In the original he was an annoying and creepy bullet sponge enemy, that teleported you everywhere, had weak attacks, would send in regular mooks to fight you, and was kind of boring to fight; a disappointing big bad really.**

**The Black Mesa Nihilanth?**

**This one embodies the Eldritch-Lovecraftian Elder God; that feels as if you are really fighting a being that has fought more powerful beings than you, and has always come out on top. **

**You have to think strategically, in the midst of blind panic as he almost casually throws things at you that could very easily kill you.**

**When you break his first layer of shields, things start getting more serious; and now he actually starts throwing more deadly attacks your way. **

**By the time you break his second shield; he realizes that now you actually might stand a chance at killing him, and starts throwing everything he has at you. **

**In the end, it's not a boss fight; its two titans slamming away at each other for the fate of their respective worlds.**

**A superb remake of the original Half Life; I am a very cheap person, and this is worth every single cent that I spent on it. It has that creators love, and charm, and narrative written into it that most first person shooters; hell, any story driven game these days has just failed to capture in my opinion.**

**In any case; I've held you guys hostage for long enough.**

**I would really love a TV tropes page.**

**Leave a review as always.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	15. Fallout

**February 22****nd**** 2183 CE/AD; The Presidium, 0113 hours**

I watched as the first responders and C-SEC officers marked the spots where the dead lay.

I watched as they put the dead in the familiar black body bags, most of their faces blank masks as they worked. It was something that happened all the time; the sentient mind was conditioned to only accept so much death and destruction before your mind just shut down and went on autopilot.

"It's horrible boss… the Imam…" Archer said next to me, the wolf skull bandana doing nothing to hide how she felt from me. Colt and Phil stood behind us; Phil nursing his head due to getting pounded by that Juggernaut of a man, while Colt idly played with his K-bar.

"It's something we should've considered long ago. The Imam is almost assuredly indoctrinated, that's the only way a Traveler would ever work with Saren." I stated, taking my emotions and shoving them down hard; my standard method to retaining my sanity.

"You think those knock-off versions of us are Travelers too?" Colt asked as he sheathed his K-bar, glaring outward at the black scorch marks near the docks to the presidium.

Phil shook his head, "_Nyet_, I don't know about you; but I highly doubt that someone like that monstrosity could have come from our Chechnya."

We all nodded reluctantly; Chechnya may have been annexed by Russia in our universe, but it was still a third world country by all standards. Even with superb genetics, that seven foot tall monster would never have achieved his height and muscle mass with how the Chechens lived back home.

In this universe Chechnya was very isolated; and was somewhat hostile to outsiders. But it was, by all accounts, a nice place to live if somewhat backwards in terms of tech.

"Garth is back to recovering properly, Leo's going to pull through but it was touch and go; Brooks, Castle, Rook, and Rose are all off on their Prowler trying to find where those EA SF guys disappeared to. Obram's recovering the rest of Phoenix's team, and Grant is on his way here, along with Hackett; wonder what the old spymaster is up too." I mused as I scratched my nose through my bandana. When I wasn't in combat, I just took the oxygen mask off and hung it on my armor; it was irritating to wear, and it was something I avoided wearing if possible.

Colt scratched his chin, "Probably to chew out the council; let's be honest with ourselves, this attack was entirely preventable through no fault of our own." He grunted.

Archer practically snarled as she said, "If the Council dismisses our claims again, I swear I will scalp their heads like my ancestors did in the olden days."

I very quickly imagined Archer standing atop the council, giving a warcry over their dead bodies; dressed in Cherokee warrior getup. A spear in one hand, a musket in another; dressed in only a skirt, and covered in war paint, feathers and beads done in mini-braids with the rest of her hair a tangled mess.

Shaking my head, I quickly banished those images from my mind. _Not the time for fantasies me. _I reminded myself.

"Now there's a sight you don't see every day." Phil noted, jerking his head over to the nearby golden Krogan statue; the statue itself having been reduced to a pile of Gold slag.

We all turned and looked.

The Quarians Shepards team had rescued from the bar were all sat in a circle; emergency blankets hung over their shoulders, all of them chatting quietly. But what was really unusual was the circle of people standing next to them.

Wrex, Aethyta, Tali, Garrus, Shepard, Alenko, and Williams stood in a circle; talking about something or other. "Figure we should go and see what they're talkin 'bout boss?" Colt asked, emphasizing his Cajun accent as he did so to let me know that he was serious.

Giving a quick look to the others, I just shrugged; "What the hell, why not."

* * *

"I… _Kheelah, _you're serious about that? You're offering to employ all of us on the _Normandy?_" Tali was asking, her tone making it clear that she thought Shepard was playing a sick joke on her and the other Quarians

Shepard just gave her a sad smile, before saying "I am, but I'll be honest it will be dangerous. After this attack, and the evidence you presented us, the council will almost assuredly send us after Saren and the Imam. There is a very real risk that we'll all get killed." She stated it calmly, but forcefully; as if to reinforce her point on the young Quarian.

Tali seemed to gain a little bit of spine on hearing that, "It cannot be more dangerous than here or anywhere else. We're Quarians, the very air we breathe is dangerous." She declared, looking at the other six Quarians who sat next to the group.

They all gave tired but determined nods… except little Fyodor, who just stared at them.

I couldn't keep the scowl off my face as I looked at the little guy; he was just a little kid, and he had gotten caught up in this whole mess, likely traumatized by the experience.

He hadn't said a word to anyone; he hadn't even talked while the others were in captivity, according to them, he had already been there when the EA fighters and Fists thugs took them to Fists bar.

Fist… That name wiped any emotions from my face as I thought about the guy.

On one hand, it stirred total contempt and hatred; the man had sold Tali and the other Quarians out and left them to die to EA and Sarens assassins. But on the other, I couldn't help but feel a small measure of pity for the man. He had been forced to do it by that Muhandis guy; and he had been scared for his life when that vest detonated once Shepard and I had thrown him off the balcony.

"Incoming spies, eleven o'clock." I heard Wrex grumbled as we approached.

We all stopped upon coming within a few feet of the group; and the future _Normandy _ground team all turned to face us.

Shepard seemed… tired, for lack of a better term; while everyone else seemed to be on their guard or regarded us with suspicion. Except for Garrus, Wrex, and Aethyta; since they all knew us from past experiences.

I cleared my throat and rubbed my chin under my bandanna, "You guys did well out there." I said.

Garrus gave a soft chuckle as he walked forward, taking my hand in a rough handshake; "Did well? That's damned high praise coming from a ground pounder like you August; or do I still have to call you Nomad" He asked.

I gave a soft laugh, "August is fine, and how do you know I'm Army? For all you know I'm one of those secret agent types that no one knows who I work for." I joked

Gunny Williams snorted, "Please, you walk, talk, and look like an Army grunt. You even have that annoying southern twang most of them carry."

I gave her a mock offended look, indignation bubbling through my body. How dare she mistake the refined, aristocratic Robert E Lee Northern Virginian-Southern Maryland accent. "I'll have you know that my Bobby Lee accent is nothing like those hicks from Georgia." I snorted, trying to keep myself from smiling.

"Which Georgia; the one in North America, or the one in Russia?" Lt. Alenko asked sarcastically.

"Does it matter? They are all hicks." Phil stated, amusement leaking into his voice.

All of us laughed; well, except for the aliens since they probably couldn't tell the difference. It felt good to laugh, it took away some of the tension; made it feel like you were releasing pressure on your body that you hadn't known was there.

The laughter tapered off as everyone turned their eyes outward, surveying the amount of body bags being carried away. Aethyta shook her head, "May the goddess have mercy on them." She said sorrowfully.

"At least all the ones that carried this out are dead." Wrex noted, sounding somewhat uncaring; but I could tell that he was slightly shaken. Maybe not from the amount of death so much as how close he came to joining them.

"This attack shouldn't have happened in the first place." Archer remarked bitterly.

"We didn't stand a damned chance with these bullshit rules of engagement. These politicians send us in halfcocked, and everyone else pays the price for it; all so we can keep pretending we're not at war." Williams spat bitterly.

"Yeah, that's the fuckin lie of the century right there." Colt noted sadly.

Garrus clenched his hands and growled, "Why can't we just take the damned gloves and fight."

"Garrus…" Shepard said, giving the Turian a sad look.

He paused and looked at Shepard, then at me; I just gave him a quick nod, "Go on… don't let us stop you." I said.

"Better to get it out now, rather than blow your top at some bigwigs." Alenko added.

Garrus took a breath, "They can tell us when, they can tell us where; but they can't tell us how. If they want to try to boss us around, they should be out here with us making the calls." He snapped.

"Well it's a good thing I agree with you Detective Vakarian, but the Councilors would certainly beg to disagree." A flanging voice said behind them. All of us jumped and hopped backwards, reaching for our guns before checking the motion; seeing a friendly if somewhat annoyed face staring back at us.

"Deputy Executor Pallin… I-"

"Save it Detective, and its Chief Executor now; Chief Executor Lenin was found dead in her office, killed by one of Sarens assassins. Her omnitool and computers were all wiped; which leads us to think she was working with Saren, and he killed her to tie up loose ends." Pallin said, everyone paying rapt attention to him now.

He looked at our assembled group, his eyes lingering on Tali, myself, and my fellow Ghosts.

"In one hour… the council will give a speech condemning Eayan Allah; and will present the recording you gave to me Ms. Zorah." He inclined his head to Tali, causing her to give a nervous gulp and nod. "Afterwards the Council will revoke Sarens Spectre status; he will have all of his assets frozen, and all law enforcement agencies have been ordered to arrest him on sight."

He paused, to take a breath while everyone stewed what he had said. That was a bad idea to order an arrest on sight; what chance would some beat cop have against one of the deadliest and most successful Spectres in Council history.

"Which leads me to this; Commander Shepard." He said.

"Yes Executor?"

"At noon tomorrow, or rather today considering the time, there will be a ceremony where you will be given your Spectre status; your Ambassador has told me that it will be a… 'Dress Uniform Affair' or something like that.

All of you will be attending, because immediately afterwards there will be a closed door session that even I do not have clearance for. And after that meeting is done, there will be a formal party at the Human Embassy.

Your Captain Anderson would have delivered the message himself, but the Ambassador refuses to allow any personnel to leave the embassy for the time being. Am I Understood?" He asked.

"We understand Executor?" I replied.

"Good," He gave a look at Tali, "And this is extended to you as well Ms. Zorah, please bring your best dress robes."

Tali jumped in surprise, "I understand." She stammered.

The Executor gave a nod, and then turned and walked away.

Wrex gave a loud snort once he was out of earshot, "Krogan don't exactly have formal clothing."

"Just polish the blood off your armor, they won't know the difference." I advised, only half joking.

Shepard just shook her head, "Alright, everyone head home; meet up at the tower tomorrow at 1000 hours, alright?"

Once everyone gave their affirmations, Wrex and Aethyta just walked away out of the presidium, Garrus went towards the C-SEC headquarters, Shepard and her team headed back to the docks towards the _Normandy;_ leaving Tali and the Quarians.

Since Anderson had not given permission; and since Shepard didn't have her Spectre status yet, Tali and the other Quarians would not be allowed on the _Normandy _for the time being.

I was about to leave when I saw Tali just standing there; so I asked, "You guys all have no place to go, don't you…"

The Quarians all looked at each other while Tali just sagged her shoulders; of course they didn't, and now I felt kind of like a jackass for asking since it seemed like I was insulting them. Wanting to quickly quash any feelings of discontent, I said "Follow us, we got a safe house all y'all can stay at." while I gestured for them to follow us.

"boss…" Archer warned under her breath.

"The non-traveler safe house…" I whispered back to reassure her and the others.

Tali stared at me for a second, and then looked at the other Quarians; they stared at each other, then at her, and then at me again. I just rolled my eyes, "Yes I'm serious; now c'mon, let's get out of here." I said, getting impatient; the exhaustion beginning to get to me.

Tali stared for another few seconds before scrambling after the four of us; her fellow Quarians right behind her.

* * *

**The Citadel, GST Safe House; 0900 hours**

I gave a mournful look at my electric razor as the remnants of my Captain Price Mutton Chops fell away into the garbage; leaving behind a simple beardstache instead. I didn't have anything against it, in fact I liked it because it was low maintenance; but it meant I had to start over with the beard.

And I would have to regrow the beard; it was required if you wanted to go undercover on Islamic dominated worlds, where a beard was seen as a sign of manliness.

Of course, I had much bigger problems at the moment.

"_And you didn't think to call us!? After everything that happened? June couldn't sleep at all, and quite frankly neither could I; we were so worried August!"_ A familiar voice shrieked at me from the holo-screen in the room.

I winced, thanking God that the bathroom was soundproof.

"Ziva… I'm sorry okay; I was just so tired after last night, I could barely walk. And then I had to set things up in this safe house for our guests; I couldn't find time to call you guys." I explained feebly, already knowing that this was going further downhill.

The Quarian Traveler huffed angrily and crossed her arms, glaring at me furiously.

"Ziva please, I wanted to call but I didn't get the chance!" I pleaded, trying not to sound desperate.

"_That's no excuse, how would you feel if there was a sudden terrorist bombing on Solomon's Island or St. Mary's City and I didn't call you?"_ She demanded.

I winced; she had me there, I would have been less than pleased if that had happened.

"How are your efforts on the cure going?" I asked, playing dumb while trying to change the subject and draw her ire away from me.

Back in 2181, after the GST had been legitimized as the Alliance Army's intelligence and Special Forces branch, Ziva had arrived here in the ME universe. She had been a student at John Hopkins for a brief time before waking up as a Quarian; and she had carried with her a series of CRISPR's, which essentially was data on antibiotics, DNA analysis, and Bacteriophage's.

I and a fellow traveler by the name of Hiram had to rescue her from Ilium's Secret Police.

Hiram had come out of it with nothing more than a few bruised ribs due to a botched jump; but Ziva and I had very nearly died from gunshot wounds accumulated during our escape. But we had survived more or less intact after a couple of surgeries.

We had been friends ever since, and many in the unit had been figuratively taking bets over which would come first; whether I would ask her out on a date, or if Ziva would figure out the cure to the Quarian Immune system.

Apparently the latter came first.

Ziva gave me a look behind her blue visor; that I could very easily translate into, _really?_

"_Don't play dumb with me cowboy; I know you read the report when it went out. I now have a 100% grade A normal immune system again. I can walk out of your home and wander around your family's farm naked and be perfectly fine; well… except for the major embarrassment if someone were to see me."_ She said, looking away.

"Prove it." I said, smirking; knowing that she was in my office which didn't have a sterility field installed.

Ziva rolled her eyes, _"What, do you want a lap dance too? Kheelah, all you men are the same."_ She grumbled while I burst out laughing.

Shaking her head, Ziva reached up to her visor and disconnected it with a loud _Hiss!_

I quickly shut up and stared, my jaw hanging loose; Ziva smirked back at me, _"Liking what you see? Close your mouth before you end up swallowing a fly or something."_ She winked, her Grey skin, glowing silver eyes, and messy black hair shifting as she spoke; no longer hidden behind a mask.

"I…" I started to say, before she held a hand up.

"_Don't ask, every Quarian Traveler has it now; it's perfectly safe to use, and has no ill effects. In fact, it makes us Duel Amino-Acid based."_ She explained.

"WHAT?!" I shouted, finally allowing my emotions to show.

Ziva was practically beaming at this point, _"Yup, no allergic reactions to other amino-acids. I can eat your food now and gain nutrition from them. We did it by using the data on CRISPR's that I had with me and mixing it with Asari DNA…" _She descended into techno-babble, to the point that I just sat there dumbly with a glazed look in my eyes.

Ziva must have noticed I wasn't really listening, because she said; _"Yeah… all the Quarian and Human Travelers have been fucking each other in non-stop orgies to see if you can get each other's species pregnant now; Quarians and humans can at least." _

I flinched, "Wait what?"

"_Just checking to make sure you were listening, and before you ask; no, I don't know if that will actually work. You can understand that no one is really willing to test that yet."_ She said, completely deadpan.

We stared at each other for a moment, before she blushed a light purple, the color sharply contrasting her grey skin; _"And no, I am not testing it with you either."_

I blinked, ignoring the slight heat in my cheeks as I asked, "How did you know I was thinking about that."

"_I saw that look in your eyes; we haven't even had a first date yet, I am not sleeping with you until we have at least one."_ She snorted, her blush fading back to grey.

I would have pointed out that I didn't believe in sex before marriage; which probably wouldn't have been the smartest thing for me to say, but I was saved by another familiar face.

"_Dad?"_ a small voice asked, out of view of the camera.

Ziva's face lit up and turned; _"June! Come quick, your father is on; show him the surprise we have been talking about!"_

There was the scampering a feet as June popped into view on the screen; a massive smile on her face that brought a big one to mine, cracking the stone mask I normally wore. She wore a simple t-shirt, kid's jeans, boots, and a hoodie.

I guess Ziva had given her the cure as well.

"Hey kiddo, how are you doing?" I asked, smiling widely.

"_I don't have to wear my suit anymore dad! It feels great, but I am a little tired, I couldn't sleep; and Ms. Ziva couldn't either, she was really upset so I stayed up with her to make her feel better."_ She replied, a frown crossing her face.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I watched Ziva's skin practically change color from Grey to light purple again as June talked, "Ms. Ziva was really that worried about me huh?"

"_Yeah… I miss you dad; all the kids at school have only met Ms. Ziva, although they call her my mom. They give me weird looks when I correct them though." _That did wipe the smile off my face, and I leaned forward on the sink.

"June, I will be home soon; but we're going to war now. But I swear that I will visit you, okay?" I asked, feeling shitty again. It had been two months since we had last spoken in person; and I missed her terribly.

"_You said that last time dad." _She whined.

"_Yes, yes he did; but he will follow through on this promise, right August?"_ Ziva asked, fixing me with a ferocious glare.

I squirmed uncomfortably, "Of course I will; I'll put in for leave as soon as I can." I promised.

_KnockKnock…_

I glared at the door, furious that I had been interrupted; then sighed when I realized that I had been in there for a long time, and other people needed to wash up.

"Okay, I have to go;" I reached forward and placed a hand on the _"screen"_ of the holo-call. "I love you."

"_We love you too dad." _June replied while Ziva gave a sad smile; they both touched their screen as well, and we looked at each other for a minute. Then, reluctantly, I reached over and hit the disconnect button; and the holo-call faded to static.

* * *

Archer opened the door after I unlocked it remotely, struggling to get her unruly nest of hair into a proper bun; she looked at my mournful expression and the electric razor in my hand and said, "Don't worry August; we'll bury your Mutton Chops with full military honors sir." completely deadpan, not realizing that I had just gotten off the call with Ziva and June.

I just sighed, "I'll make sure this razor dies a fiery death in revenge Aya." Not bothering to correct her.

Aya rolled her eyes and stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, "Sir… have we got authorization to give Ms. Zorah and the others our cure?" she asked, having read the message we had received this morning.

"That's up to Grant and the Prime Minister. This is going to be a huge event; anyone not showing up in person will be there through holo-calls. Grant is going to go to town on these guys, everything that happened yesterday was entirely preventable; and he wants them to know that." I replied, knowing that Ziva's cure would probably cement the Systems Alliances place as a dominant power in not just military affairs.

"Speaking of guests," Aya added, "Someone has buzzed in requesting to see our friends."

I raised an eyebrow, before giving a grim nod; "Alright, I'll get my uniform on; and go meet her downstairs. Would you mind getting the Quarians up?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, Colt and Phil are getting their uniforms on too; but I'm ready to go besides my hair." She grumbled.

* * *

I had to admit, I was a little nervous; exiting the elevator in my pinks and greens with no mask or bandanna covering my face.

I took off my peaked cap and ran a hand through my hair; grumbling that Army regulations forbade officers from wearing the Green Beret. It was something that was exclusive to the Army as well, likely due to more spite from the other services.

I shook my head to keep my thoughts focused as I reached the front door.

"Major, should I let her in sir?" the receptionist, a non-traveler GST agent asked.

"Yeah, go ahead." I replied.

The doors opened to reveal two Quarians in ceremonial garb. It reminded me very much of Midna's human form from the "Twilight Princess", the clothing was very similar; only it had a Quarian flair to it, and the suits underneath of course.

"Good to see that you made it through alright Captain." The familiar voice of Sergeant Kal'Reegar exclaimed, the red and grey suited Quarian Marine walking up to me and shaking my hand.

He looked like he was wearing an Islamic Clerics robes mixed with a Jedi's cloak, all with his _Sehni's_ pattern. Quarian males normally didn't wear the _Sehni_; but since this was a very formal event, and since it was the first time the Quarians had been invited to the Citadel since their banishment, Kal had his _Sehni_ on.

"It's good to see you as well Sergeant; I hope life on the fleet has been treating you well." I replied, not bothering to correct him on my rank. Among Quarians, the rank of Captain was seen as a great honor; so it was a mistake made with good intentions.

"Bah, more death defying adventures and constant demands from my relatives to settle down and start a family; you would think that they would know better than to try and persuade me." He snorted.

He let go of my hand, and I turned my attention to the Quarian woman behind him.

I felt my back stiffen, and I snapped off a quick salute to the woman in front of me; "Admiral 'Raan, it's good to see you again ma'am." I stated.

I could tell the older woman was smiling behind her mask as she gave a light bow. Her robes were more like an Islamic _Hijab _that was a little loose, and trailed down from her head and neck and turned into long sleeves while along flowing cloak trailed behind her.

I could tell she was smiling behind her visor, and looked at Sergeant Reegar; "Kal, if you would be so kind as to take the stairs and secure the floor, I would like to talk with the Captain." She said, her almost grandmotherly voice was soft but firm.

Kal quickly bowed, and walked to the stairway near the entrance; leaving me alone with the Admiral.

"Walk with me Captain." She stated firmly, walking towards the elevator.

I saluted and quickly followed her, knowing what was coming next.

"How is she?" 'Raan asked, dropping the formal grandmotherly Admiral demeanor, and adopting the tone of a concerned parent. Not surprising considering the fact that she and Tali saw each other in a parent-child light; even if they didn't say it openly.

I sighed and rubbed the well-trimmed stubble now covering my chin, "About as well as one could expect." I admitted, "For a terrified Civilian barely old enough to drink, she did remarkably well all things considered."

'Raan gave a slow nod, hitting the button calling the elevator to our floor; "That's good, she's like her father more than she cares to admit in that regard; presses on despite harsh adversity."

I gave a light smile, "How did Admiral 'Zorah react when the news reached the fleet?" I asked

"He demanded the Admiral 'Gerrel take his fleet to the Triple Alliance and demand that the Imam and all of Eayan Allahs leadership be given over to him." She replied with a light laugh.

I just shook my head, "I would do the same for June… I miss her so much."

"I understand Captain, but these are times in which families suffer in many ways. Perhaps you will get to see her soon." She pointed out.

"Perhaps, at least she has a good caretaker; you wouldn't know her, but her name is Ziva'Lorah. She's Quarian, and a doctor and geneticist. I rescued her from Illium's Secret Police in exchange for getting her a place in GST. She's a nice woman, and very smart to boot." I replied, a genuine smile coming to my face.

'Raan was one of the few non-travelers and character from the game not employed by the GST that knew of its existence as an official Special Forces wing of the Systems Alliance Army; so I could afford to be a little more relaxed around her.

"Do I sense some attraction there Captain?" 'Raan teased as the elevator opened up at last; I ignored the slight rush of heat to my face as I walked into the elevator.

I just mumbled something under my breath before saying, "General Grant and Admiral Hackett will be here for the conference; and Grant is not happy. This entire attack was preventable; had the council just looked beyond dealing with their own races, they would have been better prepared to deal with EA.

And Grant tried to warn them multiple times. He told both houses of Parliament and the Prime Minister, begging for permission to tell the other races; they listened to him. He told the Hierarchy, the Republics, and the Union; begging them to warn the Council, they blew him off.

So he went through back channels to try and warn the Council directly."

I took a breath to calm myself somewhat for this next part, Admiral 'Raan listening with rapt attention. "Sparatus was more receptive, so he tried to order a heightened state of readiness within C-Sec. Had Executor Lenin not been in cahoots with Saren, we might have found all the Cells before they could strike. But she went to Tevos and Valern and told them that this increase in security was not necessary, so they ordered C-SEC to stand down.

Grant is going to throw down the gauntlet after Shepard is given her Spectre status; and he has the full permission of the Prime Minister to do so. The Triple Alliance has blatantly ignored sentient rights and interspecies relations for too long now; and the Batarians constant attacks on them will be addressed.

Grant even had a whole presentation made, and what little of it I've seen indicates he's going all in on this."

'Raan didn't really seem to know what to say, so we stayed silent for the rest of the long and slow elevator ride up to the fourth floor.

* * *

I adjusted my overcoat, making sure the lapels were properly folded; the belt tightened properly, and my peaked cap was on straight.

Taking out a rag, I quickly cleaned my glasses as the seven of us walked out of the door leading outside. My team dressed in our pinks and greens; I wore the peaked cap distinguishing me as the officer, while they wore their green berets. It was annoying that I couldn't wear mine when I was in a dress uniform, considering the fact that I had earned it just like they had.

But I could wear the silver wings of Army Special Forces, which was the only medal I could wear on a combat uniform besides the Star of Terra; which was similar to the Navy and Marines N7's.

Tali was now dressed exactly like Admiral 'Raan, only with the purple and black coloration instead of dark brown and white.

Tali had been stunned when Admiral 'Raan had presented her with the ceremonial _Sehni_. But as the Admiral had said, _"It is the first time the Quarian people have been invited to a security summit ever since our exile from our home world; we must look our best."_

The other six Quarians would stay in our safe house until Shepard could smooth things over with Anderson; or until she got the _Normandy,_ whatever came first.

"Good to see the snow has stopped." Colt piped up from behind, trying to make some conversation.

"Hm… a shame, it reminded me of Siberia." Phil grumbled.

"You mean to tell me you like the cold?" Sergeant 'Reegar asked Phil, slightly incredulous.

"He's Russian." I replied, not even turning to face him.

"None of us know what that means." Tali said timidly, picking at the edges of her Ceremonial _Sehni_ robes.

"The average Russian summer is around 23 degrees Celsius at best; the average Russian winter is around -15 degrees Celsius. And winter starts around October, and doesn't end until April." Archer explained, adjusting her beret.

"_Kheelah."_ All three Quarians breathed, the current cold temperatures were barely tolerable to them right now; they couldn't even imagine how these "Russians" could tolerate such extreme temperatures.

"Checkpoint coming up." Colt warned.

The seven of us cut the chatter as we approached the practical wall of C-SEC skycruisers; dozens of Turian and Asari officers guarding the check in stations. I grimaced as I observed that there were no human officers present; meaning that these officers were going to be far less inclined to treat us nicely, even with our clearance.

"Hold it!" the Asari sergeant in charge snapped once we arrived at the weapons detectors.

We stopped, and said nothing while four officers formed a semi-circle around us.

"What are you doing here, and what the hell is with these suit rats? And why are they dressed in their ceremonial _Sehni's_?" The Sergeant demanded, hand on her pistol.

I kept my hands in sight as I explained, "I am Major August Lee, and this is my team. This is Admiral Shala'Raan, Ms. Tali'Zorah, and their escort Sergeant Kal'Reegar; we have authorization to be here by the Chief Executor, and the human ambassador. I have the papers to admit all seven of us in my coat pocket, may I please retrieve them?" I asked.

"Do it, but do it slowly." The Sergeant growled, clearly not trusting us.

I always hated checkpoints like this; I understood these guys were doing their job, and it was a very stressful one at that considering they were the first line of defense should another attack happen.

But their unfriendliness just made things more difficult, and made people more nervous.

I unbuttoned my overcoat and slowly produced the datapad containing the copies of our authorization. I showed it to the Asari Sergeant, who read the names on the list; and quickly matched our faces to the ones provided.

"Step through the sensor; and no funny moves human." She snapped, shoving the datapad back into my arms.

I took a breath but did as she said; the more I thought about it, the more I was certain this wasn't curt stop and frisk. _Fucking racists… can't even acknowledge the fact that most of the people killed were humans._ I thought to myself.

It didn't take long for all of us to go through; but even though we were clean, the Asari and Turians guarding the checkpoints didn't stop glaring at us until we had left their line of sight.

"I've had more cheerful conversations at funerals." Colt grumbled as we approached the main tower leading to the Council Chambers.

"They just see potential threats in you humans now, that is why they didn't pay more attention to us; at least, no more than to give the usual insult." Admiral 'Raan noted sadly.

No one said anything in reply as we walked into the Citadel tower, breathing sighs of relief at the rush of heated air hitting us in the faces. Inside were various politicians and dignitaries, all dressed in formal clothing.

Asari and human women wore dresses.

Turians actually wearing something other than Armor; which was a genuine surprise.

Salarians wearing priest like robes.

Elcor, Hanar, and Volus all appeared the same, but if I knew the difference I'm pretty sure they looked nice to their respective species.

Almost all the men present were Systems Alliance Military, with very few exceptions, which meant that most of the men were wearing uniforms.

"Excuse me sirs." A voice said behind me.

All seven of us turned to see four Alliance Marines in full dress blues standing at ease behind us. "If you would like us to take your coats sir, we will take them to the private holding areas for military personnel." The lead Marine said, the gold chevrons of a lowly Corporeal glistening in the light.

All four enlisted men looked calm and stern, and I knew that they weren't giving me an option.

This was probably another security measure; those that refused would end up getting a tail of sorts to make sure they didn't try anything funny until the ceremony was over. "Of course Corporal; my thanks, and enjoy the ceremony." I replied, giving them a calm and reassuring smile. It wouldn't due to annoy them or treat them rudely; as they might intentionally wrinkle my overcoat, or even spit in it if they were really spiteful.

The Corporeal seemed to relax slightly as we all handed over our Overcoats, and they quickly and quietly took them away. "John, tail them to make sure they don't steal them or mess them up; if you would please." I ordered.

"But of course Herr Major." Colt replied sarcastically, clicking his heels and disappearing into the crowd.

"I'll head to the bar; keep an eye on the patrons." Phil stated, before lumbering off; his massive physic making him stand out in the crowd.

"hey, they have a snack bar; Dextro and Levo based." Kal pointed out, somewhat mournfully.

Admiral 'Raan rolled her eyes behind her visor; "Go ahead Sergeant, we are far from helpless newborn Varren." She said.

Kal was practically bouncing on his feet as he went off into the crowd; "Aya, you'd best go with him, that way you can keep an eye on the crowd; and make sure he doesn't over eat."

Archer rolled her eyes, but replied with "Yes sir." stalking off after the Quarian Sergeant.

"You're watching the crowds? Why?" Tali asked, sounding very small now.

"We have a saying in our line of work, 'Trust but Verify'. We trust C-SEC to do its job, but we need to make sure nothing slips through the cracks." I explained.

"That seems awfully pessimistic." Admiral 'Raan commented, before asking "What happened to the bright eyed Captain from three years ago?" as she looked at the new rows of ribbons and added medals to my uniforms Coat.

"He died when I earned my Majority, and learned just how cruel this galaxy can be." I replied.

* * *

"I tell you, this shall be humanities finest moment; mark my words." I heard Ambassador Udina saying as Myself, Tali, and Admiral 'Raan approached the group of people that would become very familiar to many a gamer.

Garrus was in his C-SEC dress uniform, Wrex in his best Armor, Aethyta wearing a very simple dress. Staff Lieutenant Alenko and Gunnery Chief Williams were wearing their Marine Dress Blues; which actually looked almost exactly like the ODST Dress Uniform from promotional material back in my universe.

Vice Admiral Hackett, Captain Anderson, Lt. Commander Shepard wore the Navy dress whites; which was again a case of déjà vu for me since they looked like the UNSC Navy dress whites, just with more ribbons and medals.

Udina wore a simple and plain brown suit, which made him stand out in the group.

Since we were indoors, I kept my peaked cap tucked underneath my left arm as we approached; and I kept my mouth shut since I was in front of superior officers. "Admiral Hackett, Captain Anderson, sirs!" I said, snapping to attention and saluting.

The group turned away from Udina; who seemed to be very annoyed at the interruption; and they all focused on me. Hackett seemed very weary; likely from all the saluting he's had to deal with due to all the enlisted men and lower officers.

"At ease Major, who is that I see with you?" He asked, eyes now lighting up slightly from curiosity.

"Ms. Tali'Zorah, the Quarian who delivered the evidence on Saren, Balak, and the Imam." I started, gesturing to the Purple and black suited and robed Quarian; who seemed to be blushing from the attention. "And this is-"

"Hello Steven." Admiral 'Raan said, interrupting me and catching everyone except Hackett completely off guard; _she knows Admiral Hackett?_ I thought.

"Shala, it's good to see you again." Hackett replied, gently brushing me aside as a clasped 'Raans hand; bowing as he did so.

"It's been too long Steven; you're a Vice Admiral now? My… what happened to the ambitious young lieutenant?" She asked semi-rhetorically.

"The same thing that happened to the Junior Engineering Officer of the old gang." He replied with a smile. He turned and saw my stupefied expression mirrored on everyone else's; Udina in particular looked scandalized. "No, none of you may ask; the details are classified, and will continue to be until long after we are dead." He stated, preemptively squashing any notion of asking questions.

"Of course sir." Shepard said, giving a very quick glance at Garrus; so fast that most would have missed it, but I had always been good at reading people even before I came here.

Hackett turned his attention to me and frowned, "Major Lee, where is General Grant?" He asked.

I blinked, "I thought that he had already arrived sir." I replied, already scanning the crowd for the man.

"Perhaps he's gotten himself lost." A snide voice said from beside Udina.

I looked to find the source, and felt my blood run cold.

Blue peaked cap, navy blue dress pants, black boots that shined like metal, and an ugly olive green dress jacket with brass buttons; gold shoulder boards with two small silver stars, and a brown belt at the waist. He looked very much like an NKVD agent, for lack of a better term; although no one present would likely understand what that meant.

An International Affairs Agency Officer; his two silver stars making him the equivalent of a Simulated Lt. Colonel.

The IAA was the Systems Alliances chief federal law enforcement agency; their job was to keep the Nation States that funded and supported the Systems Alliance government in line. They weren't quite Secret Police, but they toed that ugly line.

The best comparison would be the FBI during the 1930's under Hoover.

They were bullies, and were not afraid to intimidate or blackmail people into submission. Everyone hated them with a fiery passion, and they did little to try and mend bridges with others. The Navy and Marines may have hated the Army and Air Force because of Shanxi; and the Army and Air Force were more than willing to return that vitriol over their treatment by the other services. But all four branches of the military were more than happy to put aside their differences when it came to dealing with the IAA.

"What would a Grave Digger be doing all the way out here, I wonder?" I asked, openly glaring at the IAA agent.

Shepard, Williams, and Alenko had no more restraint than I did; all of them throwing glares at the man behind his back. Anderson and Hackett were more restrained; simply giving the man cold looks as they did their best to avoid him.

Garrus, Tali, Admiral 'Raan, Wrex, and Aethyta seemed to sense the tension; and wisely shut up to watch the fireworks.

Only Udina seemed to take the Agents side in the battle lines already forming.

"Show some respect Major, Lt. Col. Harkin has quite the distinguished career in the IAA. He's here to make sure nothing bad happens to Lt. Commander Shepard before and after the ceremony." Udina snapped.

I barely kept the scowl off my face, keeping my face level and giving away nothing.

_Of course Harkin would be the closest thing the Alliance has to a Secret Policeman; he'd fit right in with those kinds of people._ I thought angrily. Looking at him, I could see the bald head and brown goatee that had been grey in the game. I guess the his life in the IAA had treated him better than his life in C-SEC.

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me, Ambassador." Harkin stated calmly, and Udina quickly shut up. "It is good to meet you Major; I've read a lot about you from the files not blacked out. Quite the interesting family history, tell me; do you keep in contact with your family?"

I very slowly clenched and unclenched my fists.

In my old universe, my mother had been a stay at home mom, but she had been a gym teacher and gymnast before my sister was born. She had also had minor dyslexia that went undiagnosed her whole life since she had grown up during the time where that was not exactly something you wanted advertised.

My Father had been a renaissance man; a Mechanical Engineer, high ranking in DOD. He had done a lot of shady stuff during the early years of war on Terror, which had not happened in this universe. He was also an inventor and a businessman; making, designing, and selling toys for a living.

My sister had been an ethno-botanist and an artist, but the two of us hadn't gotten along that well due to an age gap and a clash of personalities. She had also had minor Autism and ADD when growing up, but it had gone undiagnosed most of her life; and she had been held back from achieving great potential. I may not have liked her, but I couldn't deny how smart she was when she put her mind to something.

In this Universe; my mother had been an Olympic Gymnast, winning a Silver medal shortly after getting married to my father; before she had gotten pregnant with my sister and retired.

My Father had been Deputy Defense Minister during the First Contact War; and he had owned a huge plantation in Southern Maryland, which I now owned from inheritance. He grew Peaches and Apples from massive orchards, and he also grew grapes to sell to wineries, and tobacco to sell to cigar companies.

My Sister had been a Biologist, Theoretical Physicist, and Botanist; publishing many papers about the subjects that were so detailed, that Dr. Heliix and many other Skell Tech researchers used them as building blocks for certain areas of research. I guess with Gene mods removing many mental conditions, she really had been allowed to grow to her full potential.

I suppose you're wondering where they are; the short of it is, they died in a horrible accident. Even in the future, skycar accidents seemed to happen with a sad regularity; the only comfort I could find was that all three of them, and the poor guy who had hit them had all died instantly.

All this had gone through my mind as I glared at Harkin, the IAA agent looking quite smug.

I opened my mouth to say something that I would probably have seriously regretted; when I heard a familiar voice.

"Sad day Marine, Sad day."

Grant had arrived.

I turned to see that he had his overcoat on, but didn't have his arms in the sleeves; making it look like a cloak or a cape. Schultz had already removed his overcoat, and had an almost exasperated look on his face as Grant shook the hands of the four Marines that stood around them.

"Thank you sir, I ca-" The Marine Corporeal from earlier was saying, when Grant brushed her aside.

Unfortunately, Grant was in a bit of a mood at the moment; meaning that he wasn't really inclined to pleasantries. "Harkin!" He called, not loud enough to draw the attention of the whole room, but our little group and a small number of people of all races nearby turned to him. "You handsome devil," He walked up and grabbed a surprised Harkins hand, shaking it firmly; "Stick you in a frock, I'd ride you raw myself." He said, smacking Harkin in the stomach.

Harkin grunted, looking very uncertain now; "I will, uh, take that as compliment, sir."

Grant snorted, "Yeah don't." He cracked his neck while looking around. I was fighting to keep the smile off my face at this point, as he said, "Right! What's a war hero got to do to get some lubrication 'round here."

He shed his overcoat, the Marine Corporeal behind him deftly taking it off his shoulders; looking like she was trying hard not to laugh in kind. If this were a movie, the scene unfolding in front of me would have slowed to a crawl while badass marshal music played in the background.

Grant quickly adjusted his jacket; the rows upon rows of ribbons and medals made Shepard's own impressive array look tiny by comparison. He adjusted Star of Terra hanging from his neck, and walked up to us; his battle scar in sharp contrast to the rest of his smooth face.

His caterpillar Moustache had a hint of grey in it, as did his hair; showing that the stress of his job was beginning to weight on him slightly. But man did the guy move with the vigor of someone half his age.

"Ah, Generalissimo." Udina remarked sarcastically; as he walked up to shake Grants hand.

Grant ignored him beyond looking at Udina's greying hair, the stuff having clearly been gelled; and remarking, "Jesus Christ. Did Coco Chanel take a shit on your head?"

It was almost too much; Grant was channeling his inner Jason Isaacs, and it was like watching a fish take to water.

Udina seemed utterly taken aback, while everyone else had to stifle bursts of laughter at the Ambassadors expense. Even Hackett, Anderson, and 'Raan seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely; while probably no one knew who Coco Chanel was, they got the meaning behind it.

Then Grant turned his attention to Hackett, 'Raan, and Anderson; walking forward he quickly shook each of their hands, and gestured to the outside with his head, "I've seen a lot of death in my life; but that? That is a loss."

He leaned forward and put his hands on Anderson and Hackett's shoulders; "Now Steven, David, tell me something. Why have Army garrisons all over the outer colonies been confined to their barracks and FOB's; and had their stations replaced with Marine Platoons?"

He gave a cold chuckle, the humor quickly evaporating from the area as everyone realized Grant was serious. "I mean, I'm smiling;" he said, giving a light chuckle; "but I am very fucking furious." Not once losing his smile as he talked.

Hackett shifted uncomfortably, "It was a decision made by the Admiralty and supported by the Prime Minister." He explained.

Grant looked at Shepard and I, and we both stiffened to attention; Grant quirked an eyebrow and I shook my head, _no I did not know that this order had been given._ He nodded, and said; "And Amul did not think to tell me, hm? I'll have to have a talk with him about that."

Just then, an Asari cleared her throat, and the speakers hidden throughout the room activated and amplified her voice. "If all guests and participants in the Spectre to be ceremony would please take their seats; the Council is ready."

* * *

I ended up next to Shepard on her left, her ground team, both current and future, sat to her left.

My team all sat to my left; while Grant, Schultz, Anderson, Udina, 'Reegar, 'Raan, and Hackett sat in the next row above us. I had no clue where Harkin was, and that was something I needed to fix; but I could take care of that later. Hundreds of Dignitaries and Politicians were packed into this room; and I used my eyes to look at them all.

But my gaze kept wandering back to the ground team.

Alenko and Williams stood resplendent in their ODST lookalike Marine Dress Blues; not many medals or ribbons adorning them, but they looked sharp and determined. Tali, in her Ceremonial _Sehni,_ looked small and nervous; but almost regal at the same time. Wrex was in his best looking Armor, polished so well I could see my reflection in it; Aethyta in her simple but Royal like dress, the image of a calm and collected matriarch. Garrus sat next to Shepard, his C-SEC dress blues crisp and sharp; several medals adorning his chest.

And then there was Shepard.

She was the very picture of a fearless Commander. Her flaming red hair done up in a picture perfect bun, her Dress Whites having no spots or stains visible to the naked eye. Her chest was adorned with rows of medals and ribbons; her Star of Terra hung from her neck, shining as bright as a sun as it reflected the lights in the room.

Despite being equal in rank; I very rightfully felt inadequate next to her.

If Wrex were to ask his famous question; "Who would win in a fight, you or Shepard." There were no doubts in my mind Shepard would win. She'd probably crush me in less than a minute. All three years spent fighting the Merc groups, Slavers, Eayan Allah, and training with some of the best brothers and sisters in arms a person could ask for; and I was still inferior to the woman beside me.

It was a sobering thought.

The Councilor's had just finished their speech regarding how Saren's betrayal was to be a further reminder that even the best of us could fall; just some more politically motivated bullshit, and we all knew it. I couldn't wait for Grant to lay into them during the closed door meeting after the party and celebrations tonight.

"Lieutenant Commander Jahenne Haniel Shepard, Please step forward." Councilor Tevos ordered.

It was like a spotlight was flicked on, as the area around Shepard seemed to become brighter.

Hundreds of flashes and the blinking lights of cameras recording this moment were visible to me just by looking straight ahead. I never liked crowds, and just being next to the person who was the center of their attention made me antsy.

Shepard stepped forward and walked up to the podium; the hard-light display flickering on as she walked up. Her bright green eyes were mostly shielded by the brim of her Cap; but they seemed to be shining in the light of the Chambers.

"It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel." Tevos stated, her voice as hard and formal as that of a stateswoman.

Valern spoke next, "Spectre's are not trained, they are chosen. They are individuals forged in the fires of battle and war; those whose actions elevate them to be the greatest amongst their peers."

I wasn't sure if this whole speech was pre-written and given to every Spectre, but it certainly sounded too formal and put together too well to be on the spot.

"Spectre's are an ideal, a symbol; the embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Citadel, instruments of our will." Tevos continued.

_Hmph, more like your bludgeon for troublesome people you don't like; or those that make you look bad._ I thought to myself. The more one thought about it, the more one couldn't help but think about how much the Spectres were essentially the Secret Police or State Security of the Citadel.

But I wouldn't say that out loud of course.

"Spectres bear a great burden; they are the protectors of galactic peace, our first and last line of defense. The safety of the Galaxy and its inhabitants are theirs to uphold." Sparatus finished, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

Tevo's features softened slightly as she said, "Commander, please place your hand on the display."

Shepard bowed her head slightly, before removing her white glove on her right hand; before placing it on the display. In seconds, the display had taken her fingerprints, DNA, health, CSV, family history, and anything else it could get its sensors on.

When it was finally finished; Tevo's said, "You are the first human Spectre Commander Shepard. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species; is there anything you would like to say?"

I raised an eyebrow a fraction of an inch but said nothing; I didn't remember this part.

Shepard nodded and said, "The Geth and their False Prophet, Balak and his 'religious heritage', and the Imam and Allah. If they are so eager to kill for their unseen and uncaring God and for their dying religion; then it is our duty, to help them along the way!"

The crowd erupted into cheers; while I frowned heavily, Aya, John, and Phil doing the same. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Williams looked uncomfortable.

Ghosts and members of the GST in general tended to be a little sensitive about religion; dying and waking up in another universe tended to make one believe that there was some form of higher power out there, at the very least.

But, the Systems Alliance's population was mostly Agnostics and Atheists.

I suppose we should have expected something like that; but it was still uncomfortable to hear regardless. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned slightly to look behind me; Schultz looked grim as he said, "Get ready for the meeting after the party; it's going to be brutal."

I nodded as I went back to clapping; something told me this briefing wasn't going to be as entertaining as I hoped it to be.

* * *

**A/N: Link to my discord is ****/U9vgbyx**** if it doesn't work check my profile for an updated link.**

**-If you want to know what Quarians look like in this universe, just check out the Tali Romance Mod; the only real difference being that, Quarians like Humans and Asari, can have differing hair color and skin tone. (Light Purple, Tan, Grey, and VERY Light Blue for skin tone; with Black, Grey, White, and Violate for hair colors.) **

**Tali looks as she does in canon, with Violet hair and Light Purple skin tone; while Ziva looks like Tali in the mod, Grey skin with Black hair, the only difference between the mod and this fic is the glowing silver eyes rather than the weird yellow non-glowing eyes in the mod.**

**To know more about Ziva, check out GST side-stories with my joint Hiram-Nomad missions.**

**-I'll be honest, I was NOT happy with the last chapter, and I get the feeling you guys were too. And I know why, I got too ambitious. **

**The Citadel arc was only supposed to be three chapters at the absolute most, and it still ended up dragging on too much. And for something that was supposed to be short, I had too many POV's, and too many main characters involved.**

**I am not making that same mistake again. Unless absolutely necessary, I am keeping things with Augusts POV. There will of course be times I need to switch things up, but I will limit it from now on.**

**-Now I actually got a question recently; well… it was more of an accusation that I intentionally made August Lee a Gary Sue/a different version of Jahenne Shepard.**

**That is VERY far from the truth, at least the intentional part.**

**I ended up doing this unintentionally, but I did make Shepard and Lee polar opposites in a way. Shepard is an N7, the most public and well-loved of the ME Special Forces community; pretty much the ME equivalent of the Navy SEALs or the Delta Force, who are widely looked up to in the real world.**

**Lee is a Ghost; the GST falls under Army Special Forces and are unknown. I based them off of the Green Berets, who are known somewhat; but most everyone don't really know or remember them. Most everything the Green Berets do or have done are still classified today, so it kind of makes sense; the "Horse Soldiers" are the most well-known of the Green Berets. But the Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, the people who helped liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban with General Dostum's sect of the Northern Alliance; are not exactly as idealized as SEAL team 6, the people who killed Bin Laden.**

**Shepard, while not loving the spotlight; thrives in it, If she wanted to, she could very easily be a successful actor, politician, or stateswoman if she wanted to be; At least this version of her. She is kind of like Teddy Roosevelt if I had to make a comparison; she's beautiful, and could be a model while still able to kick your ass with Biotics.**

**Lee abhors the spotlight; he avoids cameras and the public like it's the plague. He would be more akin to a spymaster; the best comparison I could think of is the early Book version of Jack Ryan. He was a superb spymaster and intellectual (albeit unintentionally), but he absolutely despised being in the public spotlight; preferring a private life with his family and friends. He has no special abilities, and isn't at good CQC; and while he's certainly not ugly, he's certainly not someone fangirls would be clamoring to see. Rather plain looking to be honest**

**Shepard could save a planet, and there would be parades thrown in her honor (not that she would approve or even like it.)**

**Lee could save a planet, and no one would ever know; except maybe long after he was dead and buried.**

**Above all, they are opposites in personality.**

**Shepard is sociable, naturally disposed towards cheerfulness, and is a genuinely pleasant person to be around in general. She avoids conflict whenever she can, and is very forgiving person. But she has a weird, twisted morality, and once you cross a certain line; she becomes judge, jury, and executioner. She's not an Atheist, she's more of an Agnostic; believing "There's not enough evidence for or against God, and he isn't here now regardless; so who cares, Why should I worship him?" And her beliefs and morals are constantly changing; if this were the original game, rather than save the hostages at Terra Nova this Shepard would kill Balak's XO and all the men after they surrendered. **

**And then, she would make Balak suffer. **

**Lee is quiet, cold, humorless, and only shows emotion around his closest friends and family. And he's also a spy and a soldier; he will follow orders and kill the enemies of peace. He is more than willing to do the dirty work to keep people at peace. But he's also a devout Catholic, even before coming to this universe; and waking up here and finding other Travelers would only cement his belief. And while Lee is willing to do the dirty work, he has certain standards he will not cross for any reason. In the same situation as Shepard, he would save the scientists, and allow the Batarians to surrender; at the cost of Balak getting away.**

**Shepard would be a Paragon with the heart of a Renegade.**

**Lee would be a Renegade with the heart of a Paragon.**

**If that at all makes sense.**

**Anyway, I've taken up too much of your time.**

**I hope you enjoyed today's chapter, leave a review and tell me what you think.**

**I would love to have a TV Tropes page guys.**

**I am still taking submissions for GST side stories or fanart; join the discord if you are interested.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	16. The Soul of a Spider

**February 22nd 2183 CE/AD; The Presidium, 2043 hours**

To the outside world, I was calm and collected as I sat in my chair at the C shaped table; but on the inside I was freaking out bad.

This wasn't some department head meeting back on the Spirit of Fire.

This was the High Table from John Wick; these were some of the most powerful and influential people in the Galaxy, and here I was sitting among them like a belonged. Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and I were the four lowest ranking people in the room; and we looked really out of place with our young faces.

Wrex, Kal, Alenko, Williams, and my team had not been allowed inside.

Aethyta was here as well but she was here as a Matriarch, and had taken a seat next to Councilor Tevos; meaning that we were on our own. Grant and Schultz sat to my immediate right, while Anderson, Hackett sat on Shepard's left. Shepard and I were right next to each other; while Tali took a seat next to Admiral 'Raan.

Garrus sat next to Executor Pallin, who in turn sat next to Councilor Sparatus.

Lt. Col. Harkin sat with Ambassador Udina, the two of them sitting between some Turians and Salarians I did not recognize; Harkin gave me a cold smile when he caught my gaze, before turning his attention to the Councilors.

Councilor Valern and another unfamiliar looking Salarian took a seat next to Councilor Tevos. There were several other Turians, Salarians, and Asari in the room, doubtlessly very powerful and influential people.

I could feel the weight of all the power held in this room, it was humbling to say the least.

Once everyone had taken their seats; Tevo's spread her arms and said, "This closed door Security Council meeting is now in session; as of right now, the Species National Security act is in effect.

Anyone who leaks the contents of this meeting to their respective governments without the expressed permission given by a supermajority of this council will be extradited to the species most hurt by the leak; and will be tried for espionage and as a spy.

Is this understood?" She asked.

"Yes Councilor." Everyone replied. This was a formality; everyone was hooked up to a microphone that would record their every word. And it would detect the confirmation that everyone understood and consented to the charges for breaking security.

"Good; I turn control of this conference to Major General Hyrum Grant." She said, taking her seat and giving a nod to Grant.

The former Delta nodded back to her, and he stood; grabbing his data pad, he walked to the podium resting at the head of the C shaped table. Typing in a few commands he activated a giant holo-screen that showed what was on his datapad.

The General cleared his throat, and then he began.

"As some of you already know, I have been brought in to inform you of the new threats to Galactic peace. First, we have Saren Arterius, the rouge Spectre with an army of Geth at his side. We don't know how he managed to get the Geth to side with him; brainwashing, promises of power, who knows.

Thanks to the actions of several people in this room, his illegal actions have been brought to light." At this Grant gestured to Me, Shepard, Garrus, and Tali; before he went back to his briefing.

"Thanks to my own intelligence assets, and assets shared by my compatriots in other Intelligence Services;" Grant then looked at Councilor Valern, one of the Turians I didn't recognize, and to my surprise, Harkin. "We have determined several locations of interest regarding potential strongholds or hideouts for Saren."

He brought up a map of the galaxy as everyone took notes on their datapads; magnifying on a snow covered planet in particular. "We have Noveria, Virmire, and Feros; each of these colonies and the ears on the ground that we have there have each reported seeing Saren quite frequently, both before and after his removal from the Spectres. Noveria however, has definitely had the most sightings of our Rouge Spectre; Saren having visited the facilities at least three times in the past month alone."

Councilor Valern raised his hand; "Saren is probably interested in the AI research at the private labs there. It is the only place where such research is allowed due to its remote location. Perhaps that is where he found a way to control the Geth." he pointed out.

Grant nodded as he pulled up another planet. "That is a good thought Councilor; and we shall take it into consideration. Next we have Feros; covered in Prothean ruins, it is home to a small human colony. Only a few hours after the Attack yesterday, the Colonies leader reported seeing a Turian Spectre snooping around in the sewer areas of the colony. He gave his name as Saren Arterius, and shortly after he left, word came down about his removal from the Spectres."

This time it was Sparatus who interrupted; "Was there any evidence of Saren tampering with anything?" he asked.

A frustrated look crossed Grants face; one that I knew was faked, but no one else would have been able to catch it. "They claim that Saren didn't mess with anything, but I can tell they are hiding something from me; which is why they are on this list of planets of interest."

A nod came from Sparatus, "Then it is best we investigate; go on General."

Most people would have been surprised at how level headed Sparatus was; but he was just someone that required hard evidence to convince him of something. Once you had him on your side, he would throw himself into the task with gusto.

Grant nodded, and pulled up a third and final image. "Lastly we have Virmire; a garden world ripe for colonization, but its proximity to the Terminus makes it too unstable a region for anyone to risk colonizing it. Saren was last seen heading for here; what he has there, we don't know. The probes that actually manage to make it that far are immediately destroyed by Geth ships. Whatever Saren is hiding there, he really does not want us to see."

He paused and reached forward to take a drink as everyone typed into their omnitools and datapads.

"Next in this Tripartite Pact is the former Batarian Spectre, Ka'hairal Balak. He commands a fleet of Batarian slavers in the Terminus systems; but the man that runs the day to day operations is the 'rouge' Batarian Admiral Gar'dawar. Gar'dawar is responsible for the creation of the last piece of this gallery of killers and traitors; since the Batarians have not been stopped from committing their acts of slavery." Grant spat.

Ouch… that was a very open potshot at the Councilors, who all squirmed in their seats but said nothing.

He pulled up a photo of… well a shadowed human male; his face completely obscured, every possible bit of exposed skin was covered, and his eyes were hidden by sunglasses. This was the "face" of all our problems in this universe.

"This is the only known photograph of the man calling himself 'The Imam'. We don't know his real name, we don't know what he sounds like, and we don't know anything about him really." Grant admitted.

It was Tevos that spoke next, which made me wonder if they scripted things out before every meeting the attended together. "How is this possible, in this day and age; you can't just erase yourself from all databases in the Galaxy. Surely the Shadow Broker might have something on this man?"

Grant hesitated; "I… very highly doubt that; everyone who might have known the Imam personally before his rise to power is dead. The only person that might have any idea at all of who the Imam is; would be the leader of Cerberus." He admitted.

The Councilors faces hardened; "If this is about reactivating Task Force 1-4-1 General-" Tevos started, but Sparatus of all people cut her off.

"So what if it is Tevos? They were highly successful; they got more done than any other individual Spectre in the history of the Citadel. And considering the fact that five of the people sitting here in this room were once a part of it and are now high ranking commanders speaks for their competence." The Turian Councilor stated firmly.

I felt like I was totally lost; and thankfully, I wasn't the only one who looked confused.

The Councilors of course knew what was being said; but the five people who seemed to understand what the Councilors were talking about surprised me.

Grant looked uncomfortable, but that wasn't a big surprise; considering the fact that he was likely the one that named this supposed Citadel Task Force.

Hackett had a Poker face that rivaled a professional player, but I could see his eye twitch ever so slightly; somewhat surprising, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense considering that the two of them were good friends.

Anderson shifted slightly, his Poker face was less than stellar; his frown was only barely concealed by him moving his closed fist in front of it.

The Turian beside Sparatus frowned, before looking at Grant. Grant shook his head ever so slightly and the Turian looked back at Sparatus and Tevos, who had not stopped glaring at each other.

And the last one was a massive shock to me; but it was Admiral Shala'Raan that looked down at her lap, wringing her hands in worry. I had seen Tali do that enough times, both in the games and in this life to know where she had gotten that from.

Grant had a massive frown on his face, before saying; "While… I would like for the old gang to get back together to deal with this threat as we did with Cerberus; I am not as blind as you are madam Councilor, as to believe that all the old hands are able or willing to deal with a new threat like this.

As much as it pains me to admit, it's time for the next generation to take the reins.

So yes, I am calling for the reactivation of Task Force 1-4-1; but with a new crew and team to bring her back to life Councilor." He explained.

Tevos scowled, before softening her expression; "Forgive an old Asari General; I have forgotten that you are not a Matron or Matriarch attempting to reignite old glories." She said.

Grant kept his poker face, but everyone not an Asari in the room shifted uncomfortably; while all the humans in the room glared at Tevos. What she had just done was suggest that Grant was doing this for personal gain, even if it was unintentional; but she was an Asari, everything they said was done with a purpose.

"Hm… may I continue Councilor?" He asked after a moment.

"Of course General."

I kept my face level and kept my comments and thoughts to myself as I had always done; but I couldn't help but feel a little bit of disgust creep into my mind. _I've seen more professionally run and disciplined meetings on a Call of Duty multiplayer match._ I thought to myself.

If this was how all Security Council meetings went, I would make sure I would skip it.

Grant was talking again, so I refocused my attention to his speech; "- I were to start with this attack; it would be incomprehensible for you to understand the mentality of the people of the Islamic Triple Alliance, and to understand the Ruthlessness of the Imam.

I need to start at the beginning; years in the past, or else none of what is happening now will make sense." Grant took a sip of water before shuffling his datapad and some papers.

"You'd best have your audio recorders ready, because I will not stop to take questions until I am done." Everyone gave nods of assent and made sure their datapads and omnitools were recording; while the Salarian secretary typing everything down made sure the rooms microphones were all working.

"All right, here we go…

Our tale starts all the way back, not to the Skyllian blitz, or to the First Contact war, or even humanity first unlocking Prothean technology.

No, our tale begins shortly after World War Two.

After the horrors of the Holocaust, and the defeat of the Collectivist Nightmare Society known as Nazi Germany; over two hundred and thirty years ago, the survivors of the Jewish purges in all of Europe and the Soviet Union fled to what was known as British Palestine.

British Palestine was a part of the British Empire, which by the end of World War Two was collapsing economically; and the British, out of sympathy and pragmatism, gave the Jewish refugees Palestine.

The whole Area was becoming a rats nest of insurrection, and the British had other priorities; such as the emerging Soviet Union and the increasing hostility of its leader, Leon Trotsky.

When the Jews settled in Palestine, they were settling in what had once been their land close to two thousand years ago at the time. The Jews had lived in Palestine for thousands of years before the Roman Empire forced them out of Palestine, dooming the Jews to wander the earth as nomads; never able to return to their beloved homeland.

But in the time the Jews had gone, another group found their home in the once Jewish Holy land."

I had always been a sucker for history; and I was listening with rapt attention even though I had already known most of this. With the exception of myself and Shepard however, all the humans in the room looked bored; largely uncaring as they probably were guessing what Grant was eventually going to allude to.

But the Aliens, especially Tali and 'Raan, seemed to be enraptured by the story. Those two in particular no doubt were comparing the plight of the Jews to themselves.

Grant took another sip of water before continuing. "The Arabs, various tribes from what would become known as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jorden, Iraq, and Egypt all claimed that land in the name of Islam.

Now all of these nations hated each other with a fiery passion; but there was one thing that united them, and that was their shared hatred for the Jews. Shortly after arriving, the Jews founded the State of Israel; a Parliamentary Republic, open to all people and religions provided they did not try and destroy their new country.

But the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa would not and could not tolerate a Jewish state. Egypt, the most powerful of all the countries at the time; declared a war against Israel. It was not a war for territory by either side; but a war of Survival and Genocide respectively.

This back and forth of open wars and various proxy wars would continue for almost exactly two centuries; finally culminating in almost total nuclear war during World War III. Then, the Prothean Archives were found on Mars; and the nuclear capabilities of the Arab Alliance were now rendered null and void by the Western Powers new anti-missile defense systems.

Now, you all know what happened next, Humanity founded the Systems Alliance.

But that's the story all of you hear when you go to sleep at night when your parents tuck you in for bed." Grant said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "The Arab Alliance was NOT happy that the State of Israel would now exist and be a part of the New World order. They were so angry, that many Islamic leaders both publicly and privately declared that they would smuggle nukes into Israel; and then detonate every nuke in their arsenal, both on themselves and their arch-rivals.

Now when the SA caught wind of this, they were furious. After much blood and sacrifice, the plot was stopped before it could go through; but it was close… very close. And for the rest of humanity, this was the straw that broke the camel's back; Islamic extremism and terrorism had been a problem ever since the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church gave sanctuary to the prophet Mohammed, and now they wanted blood.

For all intents and purposes, and to make a long story short the Systems Alliance essentially banished the radicals and their governments from Earth, and sent them to three systems close to each other; and near enough to Alliance space to keep their eye on them, but far enough away that they would not be a bother.

At first, this arrangement suited both parties just fine.

Worshippers were allowed to make their Pilgrimage to Mecca; and while the three worlds they had settled on weren't perfect, they were far better compared to the vast trackless and uninhabitable deserts of the Middle East.

And then… the first contact war happened."

Grant paused to take another sip; so I took the opportunity to look at everyone in the room. Even the other humans were now paying very close attention, and I knew why; that last bit with the Arab Alliance threatening to detonate their nukes out of spite wasn't known to anyone outside of a very select group of people.

Everyone believed that the Islamic radicals had chosen to move to their new worlds because they didn't like the deserts of their home. I supposed it made sense they would believe that; Grant had essentially just admitted to the Systems Alliance banishing a group of people for their religion.

Granted, radicals and very dangerous and spiteful people, but they had still been banished; despite the fact that the SA preached religious tolerance. _Hmph, Tolerance… any open Christians, Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, and Jews can't seem to get jobs besides the military. Yeah, the government and the system may be religious tolerant, but the people sure aren't. _I resisted the urge to snort as that thought went through my mind.

"When the Systems Alliance had brokered peace with the Turians; the Government tried to bring the three Islamic worlds back into the fold, both out of a misguided attempt to protect them, and out of a desire for a series of buffer systems between the core worlds and the Batarians.

When the Prime Minister had brought up the idea; every single cabinet member approved the idea, with one notable exception." Grant, and the rest of the humans in the room, looked right at me; and I had to resist the urge to sink low in my chair. All the Aliens looked at me in curiosity, wondering what Grant was talking about since I was very clearly too young to have been alive or influential during that time.

"That exception, hailed from the Tobacco Fields of Maryland; his father had been one of the many Pennsylvania coal miners put out of a job with the discovery of Element Zero, and his mother had been an Agricultural Engineer.

This boy had grown up in a large family; his Grandparents, Parents, Older Brother, Younger Brother, and his Younger Sisters all living in an old Southern Colonial Mansion. Devout Catholics, his parents taught him to always revere God; and to never underestimate ones devotion or willingness to do anything for God.

When he had graduated Collage as a Mechanical Engineer with a minor in History; this young boy found himself in a rapidly changing world, many of the old jobs had evaporated, and many of the new ones did not suit his interests or his skills.

With little options available to him, this boy took a job in the research and development of the newly formed Ministry of War.

From the outset, many in the War Ministry saw conflict with the newly formed Islamic Colonies as inevitable. But many were confident that these; 'Religious and superstitious Barbarians could be easily brought into the fold of intelligent and logical society.'

But this boy felt different, for many of the qualities that his comrades derided as primitive or barbaric, were qualities that he had seen or experienced growing up; traditional marriage, sex after marriage, devotion to God and religion, family staying together no matter what.

So in 2151; he volunteered to travel to one of the many Systems Alliance Army bases for a series of 'field tests' of new weapons systems. It was promised to be an easy assignment; but this boy had long known that such arrogance always lead to death and defeat.

So, when he went to the most 'progressive' and most heavily occupied Islamic world, known as New Kurdistan; he took the time to study the people and the society that his superiors had always told him were inferior and backwards.

And in 2151? They were right; but only partially.

What he saw was a society completely and totally dedicated to Islam, and a people who followed their beliefs without question. But he also saw something that would haunt him for the rest of his life; a spark in those people's eyes, a spark that told him he was not welcome here.

A spark that told him, that any fight with these people; would be a fight to the death.

After a year, he was recalled to the War Ministry; and he gave his report on the field tests for their weapons systems. For a time, he would debate over whether or not he should voice his concerns over the almost flippant attitude the War Ministry, the IAA, and even the newly formed and highly classified N7 program seemed to carry for their future enemies.

But in the end, he was only a junior administrator and researcher; and he could not bring himself to voice his concerns.

At least… not at the time."

Grant took another sip; while I contemplated his words. The Salarians and a few of the Turians seemed to be annoyed at how long it was taking for Grant to get to his point, but I understood what Grant was doing.

He was setting up just how much everyone that mattered, in the past and present, failed to understand our opponent's conviction. Grant paused, looking at me again; and I gave a short nod. _Go for it, it's not like people were going to put it together sooner or later._

"That boy, that exceptions name, was Robert Edward Lee X; the man who would be Deputy Defense Minister during the First Contact war, and later Minister of War. When the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were all for occupying and forcing the Islamic worlds back into the fold; War Minister Lee alone saw the fool hardiness of such an action, and argued vehemently against such a drastic action.

He warned that such blatantly imperialistic thinking was not only arrogant; it was dangerous.

Lee had long respected the Islamic people for their faith and for their abilities as warriors. He was quoted as saying; 'We have better weapons, better technology, more progressive thinking, better living conditions, more opportunities for life and happiness, and a better military. But what they have, and what we lack; is a warrior's spirit. They can and probably will lose ninety nine out of a hundred men in battle, but so long as that last man is still breathing; they have not lost in their eyes. We lose ten out of one hundred men; and we will look upon it as a tragedy and question why we are even fighting in the first place. This, to them, is and always will be; a fight to the finish.'

Lee was scorned for such 'defeatist' thinking; and was parenthetically ordered to prepare for a 'reoccupation' of the Islamic Triple Alliance. Lee knew it was foolhardy endeavor, and he knew that he would shoulder the blame for the inevitable defeat; but he could not bring himself to resign, at least until he had managed to mitigate the damage done to both sides.

So in 2160; the systems Alliance would attempt their 'Policing Action' on the Islamic Triple Alliance.

As Lee predicted, the fighting was horrendous; hundreds of Islamic fighters and Civilians that had picked up their weapons would die fighting to their last breath. All the while, the Systems Alliance Army would be dealt Pyrrhic victory after Pyrrhic victory. For the Army, already unpopular and demoralized after their surrender at Shanxi under the Marine General Williams; this was too much.

In what would become known as 'the Religious Mutiny'; thousands of Islamic and Christian Volunteers threw down their weapons and refused to fight, and in the case of many Muslims actually defected to join their brothers and sisters.

The Systems Alliance covered the whole affair up of course, and the Mutineers that hadn't defected were allowed to return home with no punishments provided they keep quiet about the whole affair.

War Minister Lee, at the cost of his reputation and influence, had indeed mitigated the damage by sending overtly religious Army soldiers to fight; because he knew they would see no point in the conflict, and they would force the Governments hand. Lee resigned shortly afterward, and would retire to a peaceful life on his farm with his wife and children.

But there was one thing that the old War Minister failed to account for; something that in hindsight seemed obvious. A group of six powerful and influential men who had been living quiet lives now saw this incursion by the Alliance as simply the beginning.

Indeed, this 'policing action' had in fact toppled the badly run, but ultimately liberal governments that had ruled over the Islamic Triple Alliance for decades. And with the Triple Alliance now in chaos due to the loss of their old governments; these powerful men saw an opportunity.

So these six men met together in 2167; and the formed the Paramilitary organization known today as Eayan Allah; which means 'The Eye of God'. But what these six men did not know, was that there was really a seventh player in their midst.

And this seventh man… was the most dangerous of all."

* * *

"_Kheelah,_ I had no idea that things were so complicated." Tali moaned as she sucked on the nutrient paste through her straw; sorry, Emergency Induction Port.

"Politics often is Tali." 'Raan conceded.

I rubbed my eyes as I gulped down my coffee; my food already eaten and taken care of. I hated coffee with a passion, but I needed something to keep me going through this meeting. And Grant was only halfway done with his history regarding Eayan Allahs formation.

I was just thankful that Grant had called a break after his reveal of that seventh player in EA's midst. He must have seen that everyone needed it; and he had probably wanted to give his voice a rest, considering the fact that I hadn't seen him since we had been released for a late dinner.

"I never knew the Alliance had banished a whole group of people… I always thought they had left voluntarily." Shepard murmured. I gave her a sympathetic look; this was probably the first time she had dealt with the darker side of the Alliance, and it wasn't pleasant to say the least.

"To be fair, they probably would have left eventually, the only places worth anything to them in that whole area is Mecca and Jerusalem. But the SA made the call that seemed best for them at the time." I conceded.

The idea did not sit well with me at all; if they could banish one group of people and expel them from the rest of human space, what was stopping them from doing it to others they didn't like? But between Banishment and nuclear annihilation, I think it was for the best.

Of course, if it had been the Catholics that were banished I probably wouldn't be so forgiving.

Tali and 'Raan just shook their heads; "I'm sorry Major, but all I can think of is the Migrant Fleet when I hear this tale. Pardon my bluntness, but this makes you almost as bad as the Council in some cases." Tali growled, showing some backbone.

Garrus scoffed beside me, "You heard the General, the only reason that the Alliance backed off was because their own War Minister minimized the damage and made it not worth it to pursue their goals. I think that makes them worse in a way." Then he seemed to remember who he was sitting with and said, "Present Company excepted of course."

Shepard punched him in the arm as I just shook my head.

"Just wait Ms. Zorah, you will see that this whole bloody affair is not one sided. They may have legitimate grievances with the Alliance, but the whole mess started because they couldn't get over a grudge from millennia ago. And you will see they aren't exactly meek little sheep either." I stated as I spied an Asari walk into the break room.

"Would everyone please finish up their meals please; and come to the briefing room when you are done." She called, and since I was already done I stood up and brushed my uniform off.

"How can it get any worse?" I heard Garrus mumble as I walked away.

I just ignored him and kept walking, knowing full well what the answer to that was.

* * *

Once everyone had arrived, Grant picked up right where he had left off. "Now then, who were these men that formed Eayan Allah; and who became the shadow dictators of the Triple Alliance?

Well one of them, Muhammad el-Kazi; a man who called himself _Rajul Aldawla,_ 'The Statesman'. A former lawyer who had watched an idealized Revolutionary Older Brother hanged in front of his eyes for Treason against the Systems Alliance after refusing to ask for clemency; And the man who would go on to take over and rule the Islamic Triple Alliance, and created Eayan Allah.

Hamid el-Amini; A brilliant, arrogant man who against all odds would become a kind of military genius; who virtually co-ran the Islamic revolution with el-Kazi, under the Alias of _Alrayiys_, 'The Chief'.

Salaah al-Scarrabin; A dour, humorless administrator who was capable of an incredible amount of work, who named himself _Alwazir,_ 'the Minister'.

Muhammad al-Soliman. An old captain of industry; an excellent and shrewd businessman who had kept the Islamic Triple Alliances economy together through sheer force of will and intelligence, He was appropriately called _Alsinaeiu, _'The Industrialist'.

Then there was Qais el-Rahim a former Farmer, and Abdul Azeez al-Salek, a former soldier that had defected during The Religious Volunteers Mutiny; called _Alfalah _and _Aljalaad;_ 'the Farmer' and 'the Executioner' respectively.

And finally; the Imam, the man who always hid his face to all, to the point that many wondered if it was to hide horrible scars or burns. A man with a clear Pashtun and Dari Accent when speaking Arabic, and a man who many distrusted for his Earth origins. An utterly ruthless, an utterly paranoid strongman who was constantly on the run from the IAA; who had been rumored to have been left for dead by the IAA in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, and escaped by walking over one hundred miles through the desert to safety." Grant stopped, while everyone digested this information.

I frowned as I contemplated it; it seemed as if we had our work cut out for us. Seven people that we needed to take out, one of which no one had any idea who he looked like.

At least, that's what I thought until Grant said, "Of course, only the Imam is left now. You see, the current leadership of Eayan Allah is not just scared, they are terrified. Canny, ruthless intriguers all of them; they have all managed to survive when all around them have been shot dead by both the Imam's Wolves and Batarian Admiral Gar'dawar's constant incursions and raids.

But the unmistakable signs that they are next, the signs that had preceded all the others as the Imam set them up for the kill have become more and more apparent.

Many intercepted transmissions and recovered journals and notes from many EA commanders speak of another purge coming soon. And this attack, this collaboration with Saren is doubtlessly the beginning of this purge; as any that have fallen out of the Imams favor will be sent to die to fight our inevitable response.

This ruthlessness and foresight is what has kept the Imam atop a pyramid of experienced murders and plotters. And this pyramid, has gone back a very, very long way."

Everyone shifted some leaning forward in their chairs now; Sparatus and Valern looked like they wanted to speak, but no one dared say a word.

This was definitely news to everyone.

It had been widely believed that EA was unified and always worked together to strike outwards; but from what Grant was saying, it seemed like a miracle that they managed to get anything done at all.

"You see," Grant continued, "Muhammad el-Kazi had died in 2171, despite his short four year reign he would forever be the untouchable second Prophet of Allah to the people of the Triple Alliance.

He'd survived after being shot in the streets of the capitol during an assassination attempt in the spring of 2169; but in May of 2170 he suffered the first of several major strokes, which left him unable to walk and barely able to speak. By the fall of that same year, he'd mostly recovered; until November when he suffered a second Stroke.

He continued to be the titular leader of Eayan Allah and the Triple Alliance; but el-Kazi's mental condition had deteriorated so badly, that it took him three hours to solve the mathematical equation ten multiplied by three.

Now, the Imam had been practically invisible as _Rajul Aldawla _and _Alrayiys_ had picked up what they had called 'power laying in the streets' in the aftermath of the Systems Alliances failed invasion.

El-Kazi continued to rule from New Kurdistan while Hamid el-Amini, the only one of the seven that had anything like _Rajul Aldawla'_s charisma or popularity, toured the three systems and worlds in an old but still deadly Dreadnaught; successfully leading massive offensives against the pro–SA rebels throughout the systems of the Triple Alliance.

When the Triple Alliance had finally won its short, one year, but incredibly bloody civil war; the seven leading revolutionaries staked out their turf in the newly formed government. The Imam, an unknown and forgettable figure, who had done most of the dirty work in the final months of the war, was without question; the least popular and well known of the men surrounding Muhammad el-Kazi in his new, Islamic Theocratic Paradise.

But the Imam… had the Soul of a Spider."

Everyone was enraptured by Grants tale now, and even Tevos who had been largely disinterested; was paying rapt attention to the old General.

"The Imam volunteered for the seemingly insignificant position of Chief Secretarial Administrator of the Triple Alliance; the position had no power at all, except the power to decide which military and civilian areas got what for supplies, and the power to appoint new officials.

It is representative of the Imams genius for intrigue, and his patience as well; that he was willing to take on this minor post because in a very short amount of time, he was able to fill all of the most critical positions in both Eayan Allah and the Triple Alliance with people loyal to him, personally. And he was able to ensure that units that showed loyalty to him got the best food, weapons, equipment, and whatever else they needed.

It also meant that as _Rajul Aldawla_'s health continued on its downward spiral; it was the Imam in charge of his daily care.

No one saw el-Kazi without going through either the Imam or one of his appointees, and the Imam could afford to wait; since it was clear to everyone that el-Kazi was not long for this life.

Then, in January of 2171; Muhammad el-Kazi suffered another debilitating stroke.

The man, whose oratory, rhetoric, and brilliance had won him a miniature empire of tens of millions of people, would never speak again. The rest of the leaders of the Triple Alliance were in a panic. They were so concerned about el-Kazi's health that they began editing news articles and restricting his extranet access; removing any news items or information that could potentially cause _Rajul Aldawla_ any kind of stress or irritation.

On February 22nd, 2171; el-Kazi suffered one final stroke, fell into a coma, and died during the night.

The Imam, as part of his post, arranged for _Rajul Aldawla_'s funeral. Against el-Kazi's will and the man's three wive's vehement objections; the Imam had the man's body Embalmed permanently.

Then, he saw to it that his arch-nemesis Hamid el-Amini; was given false information regarding the date and time of the funeral. The Imam, in one of the only times he ever appeared in public, carried el-Kazi's coffin with the other Islamic leaders, making _Alrayiys_ more than conspicuous by his absence."

I could see many of the Salarians and Harkin were nodding in appreciation and respect almost. And I did have to admit, the man was clearly intelligent; for someone who no one outside of the Triple Alliance knew he even existed the man, was clearly a genius politician.

Grant saw the nods and frowned, "Don't go admiring the man; what he did next was not something to admire."

Everyone looked at each other, the Asari in particular looked apprehensive; and the questions they were probably thinking was written across their faces. What could the Imam have possibly done to gain power so quickly and so swiftly?

"In the long months and years after el-Kazi's death, the Imam became one of six people governing the fledgling Islamic government. Old Muslims all of them, all of whom had been with _Rajul Aldawla_ well before the failed invasion and subsequent revolution.

Now, none of the other five; Amini, Scarrabin, Soliman, Rahim, or Salek were canny enough to realize that almost the entire upper level of government in the Triple Alliance, and most of the Commanders of Eayan Allah had been filled with the Imams appointees.

Young, ambitious, and ruthless; none of these people were inclined to view the old guard, with any sense of awe or respect.

Playing each against the other, the Imam formed a triumvirate with Rahim and Salek; both of them despised the Imam, but they made the alliance out of pragmatism in order to offset the Charisma, intelligence, and popularity of el-Amini.

It would take nine long years, but by 2180; all of them would be dead… killed by the Imam." Grant stopped again, and this time he looked genuinely aggrieved as he looked at his papers.

All the Asari looked a little pale as well, likely because they had never heard of something as cutthroat as the Imam's rise to power.

For my part, I couldn't help but think about Stalin's brutal rise to power back in my universe; in this one, Stalin had been hanged by the Whites shortly before the end of the Russian civil war. So the mass purges in the USSR were nowhere near as severe as it had been in our timeline.

Grant took a breath, before beginning again; "First, the Imam maneuvered Hamid el-Amini known to many as _Alrayiys_, his most hated enemy out of the Government and Eayan Allah in 2173; forcing el-Amini to flee the Triple Alliance in disgrace. After many years on the run and after multiple rejections from the Systems Alliance, the Turian Hierarchy and many Terminus colonies; _Alrayiys _found asylum, for a while, on Ilium.

Using _Aldhiaab,_ The Wolves, Eayan Allah's Special Forces unit comprised of former Alliance Soldiers, Spec Op's, and mercenaries; the Imam had Rahim and Salek framed and then arrested for treason.

They were the stars of the first of the show trials; strictly scripted courtroom sessions where both of the Imams former partners confessed to various bogus charges in exchange for the Imams promise that he would let them and their families live.

Shortly afterwards, in April of 2175; Rahim and Salek were both told that they were going to be taken away and shot while their families were to be banished from the Triple Alliance.

Qais el-Rahim, _Alfalah_, the uneducated farmer turned administrator. The man that had provided Eayan Allah and the Anti-Systems Alliance forces with all the food that they had needed and exactly when they needed it, even if it meant working political prisoners to death; with a far clearer eye had long known that the Imam would renege on their deal.

And so he walked stoically to his execution chamber; and his family fled the Triple Alliance soon after.

But Abdul Azeez al-Salek, _Aljalaad,_ the executioner; the former Alliance soldier turned traitor. The man that had run the Secret Police instituted by el-Kazi; keeping the new Islamic Theocracy in power through sheer force and terror had been blinded by his own arrogance.

Al-Salek became so hysterical, sobbing and weeping as he grabbed ahold of his guards while begging for his life; that the guards simply took him to the first empty room they could find, and shot him then and there.

Both of those men had sent thousands of innocent people to their deaths; and both of them had known those people had been innocent when they had done so.

Muhammad al-Soliman, _Alsinaeiu_, the industrialist that had supplied the arms and machinery needed for the revolution; had been implicated in the show trials by Salek and Rahim. Knowing exactly what that entailed, Soliman didn't even bother to wait for the knock on the door by the Wolves.

He shot himself in his Villa, on October 31st, 2175.

Fully established as the Shadow Dictator by this point; the Imam then toyed with the brilliant, and popular Salaah al-Scarrabin for a full three years. The Imam allowed his subordinates to run the day to day operations for the most part, ruling mostly through hints and suggestions.

Scarrabin had helped with this process as the Imam had cemented his power; and he had loudly praised the Show trials and Executions of Salek, Rahim, and Soliman out of sheer terror. Eventually, of course, _Alwazir'_s usefulness as an administrator and minister eventually ran out.

He was arrested for Treason of course; and Scarrabin wrote dozens of letters to the Imam from his prison cell, admitting to failure to show proper devotion to Allah and his prophets, and pleading desperately for his life.

After a larger and even grander show trial, Scarrabin was of course found guilty of treason.

Despite protests and intercessions from many prominent religious leaders around the Galaxy, including the Pope of the Western Roman Catholic Church, the Patriarch of the Easter Orthodox Catholic Church, and the High Priestess of the Church of Athame; Salaah al-Scarrabin was shot without ceremony on July 4th, 2178.

Which… left only Hamid el-Amini…"

An almost aggrieved look overtook Grants features at this point; while everyone else seemed appropriately disturbed by the ruthlessness the Imam seemed to possess.

"Brilliant and arrogant Hamid, a genuine philosopher and architect of the Triple Alliance and Eayan Allah alongside el-Kazi; and a man who never tired of reminding the Imam of how much smarter, and well-loved he was compared to the unknown, faceless, bandit from Earth.

Bitterly regretting his decision to allow el-Amini to flee the Triple Alliance and live in exile, the Imam launched multiple assassination attempts on his arch-rival.

From the outset, Hamid el-Amini had long been a proponent of terror and religion as a means of governance; and he had personally sent thousands of innocent people to their deaths. It was his utter ruthlessness and ability to deploy terror that had brought him power, adoration, and galaxy-wide fame; and in the end, el-Amini repaid his debt to terror… with interest."

Even the Turians and Salarians, people who were very much used to sacrificing others for the greater good; and long desensitized to death seemed to be very uncomfortable by the tone of Grants voice by this point.

Everyone could tell that what Grant was going to say next was not going to be pleasant. Shepard looked pale sitting next to me; Schultz was looking down at his notes, mouth set in a firm line. Anderson and Hackett looked at each other, then back at Grant with blank looks on their faces. Garrus's mandibles were slack, Tali's glowing eyes had dimmed significantly; and Aethyta also was looking a little pale.

I don't think Grant had even noticed, his eyes had become glazed as he spoke; and I knew that he was remembering what he was about to say, likely because he had lived through it.

"El-Amini's wife was stoned to death in 2174; his brother, Musaaid, was shot by Batarians in a Uriah Gambit in 2176 during the Skyllian Blitz.

Musaaid's wife Nameera was shot in 2176 as well, at the height of the Kurdish Purge.

El-Amini's sister, Kaatima, was executed in 2181.

His daughter, Inaaya committed 'suicide' in 2173 after el-Amini's exile.

His son Husain, who'd been imprisoned, was shot on the Imams orders in 2177.

El-Amini's Older Brother Badri, Amini's personal secretary Awad al-Asad, his old business partner Misfar al-Safar, his best friend Ashraf el-Afzal, his fellow philosopher Qaasim el-Noori, and his oldest son Aarif; were all assassinated by the Imam's Wolves the following year, in Mecca.

Two of his daughter-in-law's, wives to his middle son Shaamil who would be hanged in 2178; were shot in 2176 and 2177.

Two of his grandchildren, the son and daughter of his youngest girl Izza, who would also be stoned to death in 2179; disappeared without a trace sometime after 2177.

El-Amini's sister-in-law Atiyya, who had married Badri, was shot in 2177; their only child, Hamid's nephew who was also named Badri, likewise… disappeared without a trace sometime after 2178."

Grant paused, wincing as he took another drink; practically draining his water like a shot glass.

The Turians were stoic for the most part; but I could tell that they were… not happy to say the least. The Salarians looked to be the least affected; simply typing down everything that had been said.

But the Asari, Humans, and Admiral 'Raan and Tali looked particularly aggrieved.

Humans, Quarians, and Asari may look very similar to each other; but we were all different in very big ways. However the one thing our three species seemed to share above all else; was a devotion to family.

What the Imam had just done, was wipe out an entire family; simply because of a petty grudge.

It was sickening…

I clenched my fist in anger; and I could see Shepard had gotten over her sick feelings and was gripping her datapad so tightly that I was surprised that it hadn't shattered. Udina looked appropriately horrified, and it didn't look like an act so that meant the man did at least have some morals; but Harkin… the man was smart not to smirk or yawn or anything like that, but I could tell the man was almost… impressed with the Imams brutality.

I glowered at the Secret Policeman for a moment, before turning my attention back to Grant; who had started talking again.

"In January of 2178;" he said, "el-Amini arrived on Illium, living with the famed militaristic Asari Matriarch Irissa T'Aes. With the death of his wife, el-Amini did manage to find some comfort in a relationship with Irissa; before the two of them had a falling out for some unknown reason, resulting in _Alrayiys_ moving to a fortressed mansion not far away.

In 2179 the following year, a team of Imam Assassins sprayed the compound with machine gun fire. In what could have been a scene from an action vid; el-Amini managed to survive by lying flat against the floor beside his bed as AK bullets riddled his walls and his mattress with holes.

The Imam, who had been stalking _Alrayiys_ for over six years, had finally run out of patience.

The Imam instructed the leader of the Wolves, a man known as _Muhandis_, that he wanted Hamid el-Amini; who had continuously written well publicized and vicious anti-Imam articles and papers ever since his exile, dead within a year.

_Muhandis_, recruited a Palestinian born Wolf by the name of Rida al-Abbasi; who, posing as the son of a Saudi Arabian senator, befriended and then seduced an Asari by the name of Ranos T'dofi, a young Athame Priestess in Training; and most importantly, an aide to el-Amini.

Rida, took his time, dropping off and picking up Ranos at the now very heavily defended _Alrayiys _compound. Rida never asked to go inside or see the compound; never talked politics, and above all, he never talked about religion. He began building up a friendship and reputation with the guards and other workers and aides in the compound by running errands, telling jokes and stories, and making small talk.

As the year progressed, he too became a member of el-Amini's extended family.

By January of 2180, after a year of working with the people at the compound, and even meeting and sharing dinner and small talk with el-Amini himself several times; his presence at the compound no longer drew any notice or concern, many even welcoming him as a fellow brother.

But on January 9th, Rida casually walked into the office where el-Amini as usual was hunched over his computer writing his latest article. Rida quietly removed a small balisong that he had concealed in his jacket; and then sank it into the back of Hamid el-Amini's head.

_Alrayiys_ bellowed in rage and pain; but every single one of the people in the compound that night claimed that his scream was more akin to exasperation rather than agony, as if in that final moment el-Amini realized that he had been a fool to let down his guard.

Guards and aides burst into the room and nearly beat Rida to death; but with his last breath el-Amini stopped them, telling them that Rida was still family to him.

Rida burst into tears, as by that point he too considered el-Amini and the rest of the complexes staff to be family as well; and begged for forgiveness from the man he had just mortally wounded. _Alrayiys _attempted to say one final word, and then died in his chair.

Rida, in grief and despair, grabbed a gun from a nearby guard, and shot himself in the head.

Nearly all of the compounds staff would commit suicide, or would be assassinated by the Imams forces by the end of the year. The last staff member to die, an elderly woman who had served as a maid, would die in 2181; and her last words were reported to have been, 'I hear it always, I hear his scream; I hear his accusation of failure, I know he is waiting for us on the other side'.

This then, is what has kept Eayan Allah, and the Islamic Triple Alliance a threat for the past two decades.

Fear…

This is why we need Task Force 1-4-1 again Councilors; this is why we need them again…" Grant trailed off as he bowed his head and sighed.

No one said a word as the General grabbed his papers and sat down next to Schultz.

After a very long silence; Councilor Sparatus stood up and said, "Councilors, I think the General is right. Direct war would only cause more death can cause more problems than it would solve. We need Spectres on this issue, but not the public ones, It is time that 1-4-1 be reactivated again; it's time for the temporary Spectres to have their day again. All those in favor of the reactivation of Task Force 1-4-1?" He asked.

He raised his hand, and to my surprise; everyone with the ability to vote at the table, including Harkin and Udina voted aye.

Sparatus looked at the hands of those eligible to vote raised around the table, and nodded; "Motion carried… unanimously."

* * *

I walked out of the meeting, clutching my datapad in anger as I walked.

Searching the crowd of people leaving the presidium; I spotted my target, and stalked up to him.

General Grant was already walking to a nearby skycar; when he noticed me, or more accurately; he noticed the expression on my face, he stopped and watched me as I walked up to him, knowing full well what I intended to ask.

As soon as I got within hearing range, I did just that; "Task Force 1-4-1?" I growled, Grant was supposed to inform the leadership of the GST of everything that had happened in this version of the ME universe; and he had notably failed to mention that little tidbit of information.

I had already grilled Schultz, but he had known nothing about it; which meant the old General was keeping secrets from even his closest friend.

Grant at least had the decency to look ashamed; "When I first arrived in 2160, it was just after the First Contact war. You know why Cerberus is no longer a threat? Do you know why we haven't had to deal with good old Jack and his human supremacist nutjobs yet?" He asked, "Because 1-4-1 eliminated all their cells in Citadel space; they still exist in the Terminus, but they don't dare and try to do anything too obvious or damaging in Council Space again after the thrashing we gave them."

Now that he mentioned it, he was right; we hadn't had to really deal with Cerberus in Council space all that much, at least in the years I had been here. But… "And you involved the Quarians in this?" I asked, knowing that it must have been like pulling a tooth to get the council to even think about that.

Grant just laughed, "It was me, Anderson, Hackett, Nihlus, General Victus who was just a lieutenant at the time, Admiral 'Raan who was on her pilgrimage, and Dr. Solus who was still a newcomer in STG.

There were many others of course, but the seven of us formed the core ground team; with Hackett as the CO of the boat. Amul had been elected to the Senate and was well on his way to becoming Prime Minister and he convinced the Senate of the idea. Ambassador Goyle, who was a far better diplomat than Udina, convinced the Council of the idea; while this universes version of your father convinced the cabinet and the Prime Minister at the time to go through with the plan.

1-4-1 was pretty much just giving a small group of elite fighters a badge of temporary Spectreship with one legitimate Spectre as a cover; and gave us a blank check to go after Cerberus.

And when Cerberus was driven out of Council space, 1-4-1 was disbanded; our purpose had been fulfilled. Anderson of course was recommended for the Spectres, and we all went our separate ways."

I frowned heavily, and asked; "And you didn't think to tell us about this little tidbit of information?"

Grant looked somewhat annoyed now, and said; "It was classified, no one except those involved in the project could know about it. Councilor Valern didn't even know about it until this morning when Tevos and Sparatus told him.

Just because you're one of the founders August, does not mean you're entitled to any information that you don't know. If you want to know about it, go through back channels and call in favors; work to get your intel.

Don't ask for it."

And with that, the General walked into the Skycar; and departed for the Prowler that had brought him here. I watched him go, chastened; but also on guard now. As I watched Grant leave, I thought; _Just what did you and the others do that caused all info about 1-4-1 to be sealed up tight Grant?_

I would get my answer of course, but not in the way I ever expected to.

* * *

**A/N: Link to my Discord is now ****rUQYqjJ****, check my profile for an updating link if this fails to work.**

**An exposition dump chapter, but one I felt was necessary.**

**Yes, in case you did not catch it; I made Leon Trotsky the leader of the Soviet Union in this universe. The only way I see WW2 ending in any way where it doesn't drag on; is two stipulations must be fulfilled. **

**Trotsky would have to be leader of the Soviet Union, as he was a far more brilliant (and merciful, but that's not saying much) leader compared to Stalin.**

**And the other, is that Operation Market Garden succeeded. Had Market Garden worked, we would have ended the war in Europe by Christmas; as it stands, the main reason it had failed was because of reserved tank units being saved for the Eastern Front. If Trotsky, military genius he was (and he was a brilliant man, he was the only reason the Reds succeeded against the Rainbow armies of all the western powers) had been in charge, the Germans would not have held anything back from the front; so that would have allowed the western powers to capitalize on Market Garden.**

**And for those wondering, I HEAVILY based the Imam's rise to power on Stalin's; this will become very important later on in the story.**

**Task Force 1-4-1; it seems that Grant is just as much of a nerd as August, he's just better at hiding it. The history of the old guard of 1-4-1 in this universe will be covered as the story progresses through the trilogy of stories. But once i'm done with the main story i may do a full scale prequel story covering the original 1-4-1's fight against Cerberus.**

**Now then, leave a review and tell me what you all think.**

**Fan Art is welcome, and a TV Tropes page would be loved.**

**And i will see ya when i see ya.**


	17. Task Force 1-4-1

**A/N: Link to my discord is ****rUQYqjJ****; check my profile for a more up to date link if this doesn't work.**

* * *

_**The Citadel; **_**February 23****rd****, 2183 CE/AD, 0800 Hours**

Civilian clothing always made David feel as if he were naked.

Out of uniform, prime pickings for a mugger or gangster, those that would normally stay away from a person in uniform; he shivered as a cold breeze kicked up the snow from the ground. Cold, tired, and hungry; normally the N7 turned Skipper would have stayed on his ship.

But this had been a call from a friend; one that David hadn't seen in person for quite some time.

He truthfully hadn't seen the whole gang for quite some time, but as much as he wanted it to be a friendly meeting between friends; he knew that it was going to be almost entirely business. Hyrum Grant was a spy at heart, however much he pretended to be a soldier; a damned good pretender, but still a spy.

Stopping as he reached the entrance to the meeting place; Anderson just shook his head, "You are such a stereotype Grant." He mumbled to himself as he stepped into the Bar and Grill restaurant.

Walking up to the registration desk, he said; "I have a reservation, Grant; party of seven."

"Ah yes, in the back towards the bar; all of your friends are already there." The Waiter replied.

Nodding his thanks, David walked through the throngs of people celebrating the fact that they were alive; to see one of the strangest sights a man would probably see. Some of the most powerful people, and greatest spymasters in the galaxy hunched over a table eating steaks; chicken, fries, and a whole host of southern North American foods.

Councilor Sparatus, his white markings replaced with red; his armor exchanged for civilian clothing. If Anderson had not known every person in that group he wouldn't have recognized him; clearly his days as a politician had not dampened his skills from his days in Blackwatch.

General Victus, blue dotting his face was sloppily eating a dextro-steak; in contrast to his normally refined, almost Aristocratic bearing.

Admiral Hackett, a simple plaid shirt and khakis with a thick winter coat and hat; casually sipped a beer, while giving what seemed like a genuine smile and laugh.

Professor Mordin Solus, his lab coat exchanged for a winter jacket, his Salarian physiology making him particularly susceptible to the cold; David could still hear the Salarian over the hustle and bustle of the restaurant, but his voice was slow and almost normal sounding.

Admiral Shala'Raan, her brown and grey suit and _Sehni_ having been swapped out for a white and red one; the only way David could tell it was her was by the sound of her aged but still melodious voice.

And then the man that had called them all there; General Hyrum Grant, wearing a denim jacket and jeans, a flannel button up shirt, and a cowboy hat.

All of them wore disguises, none of them desiring to be seen by the public. It almost made Anderson burst out laughing, all these incredibly famous and public figures hiding in plain sight. Just then, Grant looked up and smiled; "David, so good of you guys to join us." He said, sipping a glass of whiskey.

"Good to see you again Hyrum." David replied, grunting as he sat down. "How are things going for you guys?"

"Good, good… You weren't followed right?" Hyrum asked, his smile never leaving his face; his tone not changing one iota, for anyone watching from any camera's he might as well have asked about the weather.

Anderson chuckled, "None of my crew would dare try it; and Jahenne is probably too busy recovering from the ceremony and your briefing from last night." He replied, "How did all of you give your details the slip."

"Told 'em I was going out for breakfast." Grant said, digging into his Steak Tips and Scrambled Eggs.

"I told the Sergeant that I wanted to see some old friends." Shala stated as she sucked on her pasted food through the 'emergency induction port'.

"I took the lazy route and told my guards that I was going for a long walk." Steven noted, putting syrup on his pancakes.

"Strange minds think alike Steven, I told my men the same thing." Adrian added as he messily chewed his steak.

Sparatus shrugged as he sipped his dextro beer; "My Blackwatch training let me sneak out of my apartment, they think I'm still asleep."

"No detail for me; largely isolated these days." Mordin stated, the speed of his speech significantly slowed, but his grammar was still as compacted as ever.

"Hm…" Anderson grunted as he looked down at the bacon and eggs in front of him; "You knew my order?"

"It's been the same thing you have gotten every time we got breakfast together on leave or undercover." Adrian stated, "Now dig in for the cameras."

Rolling his eyes, Anderson dug into the food while Grant looked around the table; sighing, he said "A shame we can't get the whole gang here again; how's Nihlus?"

"Still in a medically induced coma; but the doctors are optimistic that he'll be back on his feet within a month or so." Sparatus informed him, while everyone else had to resist the urge to roll their eyes.

Grant almost certainly knew already; but he was probably asking to be polite.

The thought that the rest of the old gang would never show was something that took David's appetite away. Setting his fork down, Anderson leaned back in his chair with a sad frown; Ambassador Goyle had passed peacefully in her sleep a few years ago, and War Minister Lee had died with the rest of his family in that tragic accident.

Except for his son, but David had always thought the kid had had a mental breakdown afterwards; but Grant had apparently taken the kid under his wing.

"As much as I want to catch up with you guys; we're here on business." Grant informed them.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Sparatus replied dryly; jerking his head towards the outside. The smoke and the fires from the explosions still burned brightly in some areas that had been badly hit.

Grant leaned forward and fixed Sparatus a furious glare; "You and I both know that this attack was entirely preventable Lavrentiy; I tried going through official channels, and I was ignored. I went through all the backdoors I could find, I was ignored; I called in favors, and appealed to you directly. And while you listened, the other two ignored me." Grant leaned backward back in his chair, stewing on his bear while Sparatus looked down looking somewhat ashamed.

Shala waved her hand, "What is in the past, is in the past Hyrum; let us just focus on preventing it from repeating itself."

"If you want me to stop it from repeating, then give me what I need." Grant stated, emphasizing his point by tapping his finger on the table.

Everyone looked at each other, before Sparatus sighed and rubbed his eyes; "Fine, who do you want?"

Smiling at his victory, Grant pulled out a briefcase and opened it; a little more than a dozen files. "This is why I called all of you, because I'm drawing from each of your little kingdoms." He drawled as he pulled the first file. "Roberts son, August; goes by the call sign of Nomad, Good soldier and spy, fluent in English, Arabic, Dari, Pashtun, Kurdish, and Standard Sign Language; a smattering of Russian, a little German, and able to understand Kheelish."

Grant set the file down, and Anderson got his first good look at Robert's son since the man's death. The spark in the kids eye was long gone; no longer clean shaven, and he looked to have aged ten years in the past three. "You took him under your wing?" Anderson asked as he finished looking at the photo.

"Yeah… he was deeply depressed and very anti-social. He spoke so little that most people assumed he was mute; so he rolled with it learning SSL." Pulling another file, he gave Hackett a look. "Next, Ayashe 'Archer' Kingfisher; Orphan from the Cherokee nation, stealth expert, and August's unofficial number two." A very beautiful woman of Native American descent; a sharp look in her eye and a harshness in her face.

Another file, "Voronov 'Phil' Filippovich; a former gangster and smuggler from Nova Prospekt, got caught and between jail and the Army, he chose the Army. Heavy weapons and close quarters expert." A very muscular gent who could have been the poster boy for the Nazi Propaganda machine if he had been dressed in a Wehrmacht or SS uniform.

The next was a grinning black man, a mischievous look in his eyes that made Anderson want to check his wallet on instinct. "John 'Colt' Weaver, he was a Marine before transferring to the Army under my command after I offered him the chance to 'Blow some shit up'; Combat Engineer and demolitions expert."

Grant paused and shuffled the files in his hands; "These are my people that I am putting forward, are you guy's fine with them?"

Shala leaned forward, "Captain Lee is an exemplary officer, and a superb soldier; Sergeant Reegar had nothing but praise for him and his team." She said, a ghost of a smile visible behind her visor.

Grant smiled back, "Good, because the next two fall under your authority; the choice is up to you, but I would like you to put them forward for 1-4-1. First is Sergeant Kal'Reegar, Steller combat record, willingness to work with other species, and a natural leader." He said as he set the file down.

Then Grant pulled another file, and visibly hesitated; before setting it down on the table. As soon as David saw it, he and everyone else at the table braced for the storm. Shala was a sweet woman, but one who would destroy you from the DNA upward if you pissed her off. Shala stared at the picture before gripping the table so tightly that David was surprised that she didn't crack it; "You are not involving her in your little game of spies Hyrum." She stated coldly.

Grant visibly swallowed, "Shala…" he said slowly, "She's already involved, whether you like it or not."

The Quarian Admiral glared at the Human General with a gaze that could melt battle armor, but Grant stood firm. _A far braver man than I._ Anderson thought as he watched the stare down, _Getting in between a mama bear and her cub;_ everyone else around the table having the same thoughts.

"Saren sent assassins after Tali with the intent to kill her to stop the information she had from getting loose; and since she survived, Saren will take that as a personal offence and will continue to send assassins and hitmen after her. The Imam attempted to capture her alive for her data, likely to blackmail both Saren with his involvement; and ransom her to Admiral 'Zorah.

A genius move really, it forces Saren to take the Imam seriously since he could easily expose him and he succeeded where Saren failed; and with the fleet, he either gets cheap and high quality labor, a lot of ships and weapons, or he gets to declare a jihad and up conscription and radicalize more of his populace.

In all three scenarios he wins, so he'll keep trying to capture her.

So if you want her to be safe, and not stomp on her dreams like her father; the only real thing you can do for her is let her be a part of 1-4-1." Grant explained, looking determined now.

Shala may not have had children, but Tali was her daughter in all but name and blood as far as the Quarian Admiral was concerned; and she knew that every single explanation and reasoning the human spymaster had given was true.

Shala leaned back in her chair, still glaring at Grant; "If there is so much as a crack on her visor…"

"I'll let you kill me." Grant interrupted, looking solemn. After a moment, the General turned to Sparatus and Victus. "Next, I was going to have Nihlus attached to the task force as an 'advisor' and Turian representative; but with Nihlus out of commission for the next few months, I had to make a split decision." His next file was someone Anderson recognized; a man that Jahenne always talked about when she and the Captain were in private. "C-SEC Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian; exemplary record, plays a little loose with the rules but that's a necessity with 1-4-1, highest ranking Sharpshooter in the force, and would have been a Spectre had it not been for his father's intervention." He looked at Sparatus and Victus, "Adrian, Lavrentiy; are you fine with putting him forward?" Grant asked.

The two Turians looked at each other, and then shrugged; "Not like we had any alternatives ready off the top of our heads." Adrian replied.

"He would have made a fine Spectre in my opinion, but I couldn't do anything when his father withdrew the recommendation; he's the best we can give on such short notice." Sparatus added with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Finally, Grant turned to Hackett and Anderson; "Last, is the Navy and Marines; I have who I want for the Salarian and Asari representatives, provided they agree. First we have Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams;" The Latin-American woman's picture stared back at the Admiral and Captain, as if daring them to say she wasn't qualified. "Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko," The Side-burned Biotic was a good choice, and one neither officer could think of a reason to reject. Then Grant pulled out the last file, "And of course, our new Field Commanding Officer and our 'Official' Spectre, Lt. Commander Jahenne Haniel Shepard." He set down the file, the pale faced; green-eyed, red haired woman's picture stared upward; as if assessing the threat the ceiling might pose.

Anderson sighed, "Say we all agree to your recommendations… why them? The ones like Jahenne, Sgt. Reegar, and August's team make sense, but all the rest seem like a batch of misfits at best." He asked.

Grant grinned in reply, "Top of their fields, and above all no hints of racism against other species. Besides, it wasn't like the lot of us weren't a band of misfits either right?"

Everyone couldn't help but chuckle in reply; to say they had been a band of misfits was like saying the sky on earth was blue.

"Now then… the rest are need to know, are we good?" Grant asked as he put the files away.

Sparatus stewed it over for a moment, "Tevos will complain and bitch up a storm." He noted.

"Bah, let her; as soon as we get Valern on our side, she won't be able to stop it." Grant replied, "Now then… I'll call you guys if there are any issues."

* * *

_**SSV Normandy SR-1; **_**February 23****rd****, 2183 CE/AD, 1300 Hours**

Shepard walked into the Captains quarters, wondering what it was the Captain had called her for; although if she was honest with herself, it was almost certainly about this Task Force 1-4-1 that the Security Council had decided to reinstate.

Grimacing, Shepard spotted Anderson quietly contemplating a bottle of whiskey.

_That's not good if he's already contemplating drinking this early in the day_. She thought, knowing that Anderson only drank alcohol if he was incredibly stressed or angry.

"Jahenne, sit down please." He said as soon as Shepard walked in.

Jane did so, alarm bells going off in her head at the use of her first name; "What's going on sir? This all reeks of more spy stuff if I'm being honest; more crates marked classified being piled onto the ship, Army spooks crawling around, what's happening sir?"

Anderson sighed, "1-4-1… we were quite the team in those days' Jahenne; and so ruthlessly effective that Cerberus hasn't poked its head out of the Terminus for decades now. And now 1-4-1's time has come again." Pouring two glasses, he offered on to Jane; which she took somewhat reluctantly.

"You keep talking about it, and the councilors talked about how it was an unofficial badge of temporary Spectreship for those involved. What is it about really?" She asked as she sipped the glass, the familiar burning sensation working its way down her throat.

"What you just said truthfully; only this time we'll be going after Saren, Balak, and the Imam as opposed to Cerberus and her allies." Anderson didn't sip his drink, he just knocked it back, "I have some good news and bad news for you Jahenne, which would you like first."

"Bad news first as always." She replied.

"I am no longer your Commanding Officer, nor CO of this boat; it was decided that I've gotten too old for this job, so I'm being relegated to being the military Attaché to the SA embassy." He said, putting his glass and bottle away.

Janes mouth opened and closed for a few moments, before her biotics flared angrily; "They can't do that to you sir!" She exclaimed.

"They can, and they have." Anderson replied sadly, before giving her a halfhearted smile; "But the good news is that you are now the new Commanding Officer of this Boat, and the Field Commander of Task Force 1-4-1 on top of being an official Council Spectre; congratulations Lt. Commander."

Jane sat there for a long moment, not knowing what to say, and then finally just said the first word that came to her mind. "Well… shit…"

* * *

**The Citadel, Alliance Docks; February 23rd, 2183 CE/AD, 1330 Hours**

"Why did I have to help Phil carry this thing again?" Colt whined for what felt like the hundredth time today as we trudged through the melting snow to the _SR-1._

"Because Aya's carrying your bags and gear; and Phil can't carry our Armor sets by himself; now quit your bitching we're almost there." I replied, not even bothering to look back at him.

I could hear Phil mutter something in Russian; while Aya growled, "John if you open your mouth one more time; I'm going to put my boot up your ass. Now shut up."

"That's a good thought, John remember how I said you needed to shut your mouth when we left the safe house?" I noted.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Consider it a standing order."

"Yes Major." He replied, sounding slightly dejected.

Kal just laughed as he carried his own bag of gear; "Ah good to see none of you have changed much in the past few years."

"You mean they're always like this?" one of the other two Quarian marines grumbled under his breath, while his comrade shook her head quietly.

Tali said nothing as she shrugged her shoulders; clearly uncomfortable with carrying the seventy pound bag of spare suits, masks, spare _Sehni'_s to help with disguises, and the AK-64 she had looted off of the EA fighters that had tried to kidnap her.

The other six Quarian seemed distinctly uncomfortable; except little Fyodor, who kept darting around us in clear excitement at the opportunity to stay on what was believed to be the most advanced warship in the Systems Alliance fleet.

I couldn't help but grin as I watched him run around; remembering how June would do the same whenever I took her out to places like the Baltimore Aquarium or the Solomon's Island Boat Museum.

"Fyodor, please don't run off like that; we're in a restricted area now." The Quarian who had taken it upon herself to look after him, a young woman whose name was probably familiar to most Travelers; Lia'Vael nar Ulnay, her black and white suit and her light blue visor had been dead giveaways when we rescued her from fists bar.

Fyodor stopped running and bowed his head and sulkily walked back to keep pace with his new guardian.

"Oh don't be like that kid, we're almost there." I told him, shifting my duffel bag as I walked.

Within a few minutes, we had reached the entrance to the _Normandy_; the white and greys of the ship making it shine in the Citadel's light. I brushed snow off my parka and adjusted my Green Beret; the Tri-Color Desert Camouflage of my BDU blending in surprisingly well with the environment.

The ramp opened, revealing Shepard who looked quite happy to see us; and host of other people behind her. Wrex, Aethyta, Garrus, Ashley, and Kaiden were there to welcome us; as was a group of people that I was not expecting.

The Asari Commando Shiala D'lado was there too, as was the Salarian STG Captain Kirrahe; and standing behind them, talking quietly to each other was Councilor Sparatus, General Grant, Schultz, and Captain Anderson.

"Permission to come aboard Ell Cee?" I asked, giving Shepard a small smile as I walked up the ramp.

"Permission granted Major." She replied, walking down to shake my hand. "You're late."

"Sorry for the delay, we had to pick up a few things from the gift shop." I replied as I took her hand, gesturing to the massive crate Phil and Colt had lugged the entire way here.

"So, Green Berets huh? I thought that you guys had been retired after the First Contact war in favor of the N Program." She noted, taking in our admittedly archaic Tri-Color Desert Camo BDU's, our Green Berets on our heads, and the silver wings on our chests; the only medal besides the Star of Terra and the N7 that could be worn on any uniform.

"We prefer the term moved underground." I replied, being intentionally cryptic to throw her off.

"You guys know we have to inspect that crate and your bags right?" Lt. Alenko asked.

Phil and Colt grunted loudly as they slammed down the crate they had been carrying; the box making a loud _Thud_ as it hit the metal floor, sending vibrations throughout the bay. The box was admittedly pretty big; the Eezo anti-grav core being the only thing allowing only two people to carry it, as opposed to six.

"Just so long as you guys have some storage lockers ready for us." Archer replied as she inputted a code into the locking mechanism.

"I admit I'm curious as to what you could possibly be hauling all this way here." Kal noted as Tali, the refugees, and the two Fleet Marines crowding around to see as well.

Shepard tilted her head as Phil opened the top, allowing everyone to see inside.

"I never got to ask about your guy's gear during the chaos in the past few days; and your guns for that matter, they seem to pack quite the punch." Williams admitted as she looked inside.

Grunting, the four of us first hauled out our Exo-Variant of the Ghost Armor; then the un-augmented variant, then our guns and ammunition.

"First off our armor; we got two types, this one…" I slapped the curved, grey and brown chest plate of the Exo-suit, "Is our Exo-Variant. This one is vacuum rated, tough, superb barriers and thick armor; and also augments the users strength, speed, and endurance by a factor of three, two, and four respectively. The downside is that it's an absolute pain to maintain and repair; and it takes a relatively long time to put on, about two to four minutes since we need to wear the under suit that comes with it."

We had attracted a small crowd; though Grant, Schultz, Anderson, and Sparatus didn't seem to much care and kept talking in the background.

"It multiplies your strength? How, through Eezo pockets in your limbs?" Tali asked, tilting her head and leaning forward. I had to resist the urge to laugh since I could picture her salivating over the armor.

"Nope, through these…" I replied, holding up one of the arm pieces; showing the exoskeleton.

"I thought humans had phased out Exo-Skeletons in favor of gene mods." Garrus frowned.

"We kept some for experimentation, but they never went anywhere due to power concerns." Shepard answered, picking up my helmet and scrutinizing it; "How does it seal when it doesn't cover your face?"

I held out a hand, and she gave it to me.

Holding back a cheeky grin; I slammed my helmet on in a flash, and my hands moving like a blur I grabbed the oxygen mask and quickly attached it to my mouth, and upon it sealing the visor slid down and attached to the upper portion of the mask.

It sealed with a loud hissed; before it blared its annoying chirping alarm warning me of an improper seal since I didn't have the under suit on. Grumbling loudly; I quickly removed the mask to get the damned thing to stop whining at me.

"Impressive, a lot safer than our helmets; I will admit, the idea of a plexi-glass visor being all that protects me from death once my barrier breaks is not something I like." Williams stated, nodding approvingly.

"True, but you've less visibility." Phil noted.

"You said you had two Major? I think I know which one it is; as I don't remember you wearing this the last time we met." Kal asked.

"We don't really have a name for it beyond calling it the 'cheapo-variant'; it's not much." Archer admitted as she brought out the GST Future Soldier Armor, the black square shaped semi-21st century chest piece looked quite out of place in these halls of technology; but it looked quaint and sturdy.

"hmmm… similar thickness to the 'Exo-Variant'; simple, its continued use implies high reliability, easily concealed, no visible technological uses to hack." Kirrahe mused as he looked it over.

"That's about right; in all honesty we use these more, because most of our work is either undercover or deep behind enemy lines. I know for a fact your guy's armor can last for about a week at most before requiring a recharge; same with our Exo-Armor, but these things don't require any power at all except a token battery to power the HUD, barriers, and secondary functions." I replied, taking off my shoulder holster and beret.

"The main benefit…" I continued as I pulled the armor over my head; "Is that it's ultra-light and fast to get on, and easy to conceal if you're wearing the right clothes. And of course, we have these…" I pulled the stealth cloak on, the greyish blue cloth reaching to my knees in the back.

"You look like you walked out of some kind of Western wearing that." Alenko noted, taking in my appearance.

The cloak in all honesty was more of a poncho; as it fell to around my knees in the back and reached just about to my waist in the front. Waving my arm, I tossed the front part of it around my shoulder; like how Clint Eastwood wore his poncho as 'The Man With no Name' in 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly'.

I grinned, "Well… this cloak has a ballistic weave that makes it practically immune to small arms fire, and it has some kind of micro solar charger woven into it; because it can charge your suit battery with any kind of light shining down on you."

Everyone looked stunned at that, and Tali stepped up and took the trail of the cloak and felt it in her hands. "_Kheelah, _why isn't something like this on the markets?"

"Because the process that goes into making it is classified to hell and back, and is apparently really expensive." Colt replied, as he pulled out his gun and set it on the ground. "Even we don't know how they made it, just what it does."

Shepard stared at me, then narrowed her eyes; "It doesn't happen to have active camouflage abilities does it? Because that would certainly explain your disappearing act." She asked.

I grimaced, "Noticed that huh? The cloak itself has a chameleon like ability; it doesn't turn you invisible, it just mimics the color of its surroundings. No the real invisibility is in our armor itself; watch…" Hitting the button on my chest piece, everything except my head turned invisible.

Everyone except my team took a step back in surprise; "How… how is that possible?" Aethyta asked, and I could detect a small measure of jealousy in her tone; clearly she was not used to being top of the totem pole in terms of technology.

And yes you read that right; top of the totem pole. Archer made sure to drill that into my head; the best and most important were on the bottom since they would be the first piece and the foundation of the pole.

"And why is your head still visible?" Shepard asked, now very interested.

"Because the invisibility only affects non biological materials; again, we don't know why, but your body must be completely covered. It also leaves any gunsights and eyeholes unaffected since you need light entering your corneas to see; and turning your eyes invisible leaves you blind. That's why our Oxygen masks only have two eyeholes like you see in those pictures from the twentieth and twenty first century; it's to minimize the possibility of someone seeing us." I explained.

This felt very much like an info dump the more I thought about it.

It was amusing to think that in one of the many universes in the multiverse; some kid was skipping my dialogue because they were bored with the technical explanation, and were waiting for me to give them a special ability.

Speaking of which, "Oh, I just remembered Ell Cee; normally we would wait for it to be formalized, but I suppose now is as good a time as any." I reached into the crate and pulled out another cloak, but it was clear that this one was a little different.

As opposed to the plain greyish-blue that I and my team's cloaks were colored; this one was black, with white and blood red patterns that mimicked Clint Eastwood's Poncho from the fistful of dollars trilogy.

The dashes in the middle remained white, but the patterns around the neck and around the trail had been changed to the same shade of red as her N7 stripe; and the base color was the same dark shade of Grey as her suit, to the point that it may as well have been black.

A hush fell over the crowd; while Shepard actually took a step back.

"Now, during our training there are three Phases. First are the Silver Wings, which function like your N7; they can be worn on any uniform along with the Star of Terra and that's it. When you complete Hell Week and Jump Training, you receive your Wings; your CO pins them to your chest minus the rubber stoppers for the pins, and everyone in your Chalk walks up and punches your wings into your chest." I explained, flashing them the Silver Wings, with the Ice Cream Cone shaped Parachute in the middle, the crossed swords and arrow, and the Silver Star atop the chute.

Everyone winced except Wrex, who just laughed; and Kirrahe and Shiala who had lost interest and were back to talking quietly to each other. "Ha! Show no pain and your strength to everyone in your Krantt. Maybe there's hope for you humans yet." Wrex exclaimed.

Archer massaged her left breast with an aggrieved expression on her face; "Yeah, yeah, but I think everyone dreaded Phil's turn in all honesty."

Everyone looked at the big Russian who just shrugged; "Not my fault your bunch of pussies who can't take punch." He stated, playing up his poor English as he usually did to make him seem like dumb muscle.

Shaking my head I cleared my throat; "Anyway, the next item you receive is your Cloak; you have to pass escape and evasion training, which is a sort of hell all on its own. They dropped our Chalk in the middle of Siberia with about a weeks' worth of supplies; told us we had a month to 'destroy' an enemy base and avoid capture."

"And upon completion you receive your cloak…" Shepard stated, her voice barely a whisper as she gingerly took the cloak in her hands; and while I was probably imagining it, I thought I could see hers eyes were becoming a little moist.

"Yeah… It's… In our eyes Ell Cee, for all that you've done and suffered for; you've more than earned the cloak in our eyes." I stated, unsure of what to say at this point.

She quickly unfurled it, eyeing up the patterns, the hood, and the color in particular. "It feels like real wool, I must admit that's one thing I miss about civilian clothes back on earth; they have an almost homely and old feel to it."

"Well don't keep us in suspense Ell Cee, put it on!" Alenko exclaimed.

Shepard did so and quickly pulled her head through the hole; pulling down the hood, and mimicking my earlier action she swept the front part of the cloak over her non dominant shoulder. "How do I look?" She asked.

"Like a goddamned cowgirl…" A voice said behind her, Shepard quickly spun around and found herself face to face with General Grant.

She took a step back, and shouted; "Attention on Deck!" and all the humans, Garrus, Kal and the Quarian Marines snapped to attention; while everyone else took a step back.

"At ease." Grant ordered, and we all did so.

Councilor Sparatus walked up next to the General, and eyed up everyone in the room; "So these are your choices?" He asked, sounding rhetorical.

"Yup…" Grant nodded.

"Nothing I say will make you change your mind." Sparatus stated.

"Nope." Grant replied.

Taking another look around the room, he nodded; "I suppose they'll do… I leave things to you General." And with those words, the Turian Councilor spun on his heel and walked off the ship.

No one said a word for a moment, before Grant said; "Well? Everyone inside the briefing room; unless you want to remain in the dark as to why you're here. Ms. Vael, you and the rest of the new engineering team don't need to come if you don't want to; if so, please report to Chief Engineer Addams for your assignments."

There was a beat, and everyone except the Quarian refugees scrambled up the ladders to the briefing room.

* * *

**Briefing Room**

It was crowded, very crowded.

Shepard and I stood beside the holoscreen; both of us still wearing our cloaks and I was still in my armor as I had not had time to take it off during my demonstration. _"I love the poncho by the way; I'm never taking it off…"_ Shepard whispered to me as everyone tried to get settled; almost causing me to burst out laughing.

She sounded like a kid receiving a present they hadn't known they wanted; but absolutely loved.

I just gave a small smile and winked; pushing my glasses up as Grant, Anderson, and Schultz walked in last. "Alright, settle down everyone." Anderson commanded, and the room quickly quieted at his command.

Sixteen people in total were in the room; Wrex, Aethyta, Shiala, Kirrahe, Garrus, Tali, Kal, the Quarian Corporal Fon'Ress, the Quarian Private Nina'Ciram, Alenko, Williams, Shepard, Archer, Colt, Phil, and Myself.

Not counting, Grant, Schultz, and Anderson.

"I'm sure all of you are wondering as to why you're here. Well, Colonel Karl Schultz and Major General Hyrum Grant here have chosen all of you for a special mission; as of right now, the Species National Security Act is in effect. If any of you are found to be violating it, the punishment can be up to and including death. Is this understood?" Anderson asked.

"Understood." Everyone replied, now looking very interested; even Phil, Colt, and Archer as I had not told them anything.

"Now then, I leave the briefing to Colonel Schultz." Anderson stated, stepping aside while Schultz plugged in his data-pad to the massive Holo-screen.

Everyone looked up at it as the words flashed across the screen.

_"/Classification Level: Yankee-White_

_/Commanding Officer: Major General (OF-7) Hyrum Grant_

_/Case Officer: Colonel Karl Schultz_

_/Date: February 23rd, 2183 CE/AD_

_/Special Operation Units Authorized _Access_: System Alliance Army Group for Specialized Tactics (GST), Systems Alliance Navy-SOE (N7), Salarian Special Tasks Group (STG), Turian Hierarchy Blackwatch-Cabals, Asari Commando's, Quarian Migrant Fleet Marine Force Reconnaissance (MFR), Citadel Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance (Spectre's)_

_/Subject: Formation of new threat to Council Security_

_/Objective: Destroy the Terrorist Alliance, the Triumvirate. Leaders/Members; The Imam (Name; Unknown), Former Spectre Saren Arterius, Former Spectre Ka'hairal Balak."_

I raised an eyebrow at the list of groups authorized access, but didn't say anything; Shepard on the other hand had immediately read the "Group for Specialized Tactics" part in the few seconds it had been on the screen, and gave me a hard look before turning her attention back to the screen.

Schultz took a breath, and then he began the briefing; "Two days ago; the human terrorist group known as Eayan Allah attacked the Citadel.

This isn't news to any of you; unless you've been living under a rock.

This is not the first terrorist attack on the Citadel, nor is it the most devastating. But that is no comfort to the three hundred or so dead civilians, nor the seventy or so dead Soldiers and Officers killed by the suicide bombers and fighters.

As painful as it is to note; this attack was nothing more than a distraction.

All of you have probably heard the message by now; since it's been blaring from every single news site and organization for the past 48 hours. But just in case you haven't heard it; here's a little excerpt."

Schultz immediately typed into his data-pad as he talked; images and news reports began flashing across the screen; then an audio clip loaded up; and a very familiar flanging voice began to speak; _"Once we commit to our attack, the Imam has promised me that he will attack the Citadel within 72 hours. It will kill any sympathy the public has for the Alliance; and it will stop any retribution efforts by the Alliance Parliament while they try to shut the Imam down to draw ire away from them. The Council will blame humanity as a whole for the attacks; you know how it works, the puppet dictators only see things in absolutes."_

Everyone in the room bristled in anger, and shifted in their seats. And I understood why they were angry, even though most of them had almost certainly heard those words already; all that death and destruction because one man wanted a distraction.

I just shook my head as Schultz continued to talk; "That's right; all this death and tragedy had one expressed purpose.

Take away any sympathy the Council and the public might have had for humanity after Pirate Admiral Balak's brazen attack on Eden Prime; and more importantly, shift attention away from Former Turian Spectre Saren Arterius and his illegal operations.

While this attack was happening, Assassins hired by Spectre Arterius, and EA fighters under the direct orders from the Imam hunted down and attempted to kill or capture Ms. Tali'Zorah; who just so happened to be carrying the very audio file you just listened to." He gestured to Tali as he said this, and I could see the young Quarian blush behind her visor as everyone gave her appreciative and admiring looks.

I gave a light smile, knowing that everyone in the room had been chosen for their lack of open racism; they could appreciate talent no matter the species. But my smile dropped as Schultz went back to the briefing.

"But there was one other objective.

It's no secret that the entire Council Race's Intelligence Agencies spy on each other and conduct operations in each other's territories. Most of the time, it's just to gain a leg up on one another; but for these folks, it was for a genuinely benevolent purpose.

Barely twelve hours after the last EA fighter was killed, C-SEC was called to a site where three Alliance Army Special Operations Soldiers were found dead; their bodies hung by meat hooks, and locked in a freezer." He pulled up a picture, and I had to look away.

It was a gruesome sight, but it was more painful for me because they were fellow Ghosts. They had died once already, and had died again; to horrible deaths, likely ones more unpleasant than the ones that had brought them here.

Everyone else in the room had different reactions.

Wrex looked resigned, this likely being nothing new to him; Aethyta narrowed her eyes but did nothing otherwise. Garrus gave a soft growl, but seemed unaffected; likely have seen similar fucked up cases from his days in C-SEC.

Kirrahe just kept typing into his omnitool, while Shiala looked a little pale.

The Marines in the room, Human and Quarian, looked to be a mixture of outraged and horrified; Williams covering her mouth, while Tali looked like she wanted to be sick.

Phil clenched his fists and crossed his arms, Archer bowed her head and murmured something in Cherokee; while Colt Crossed himself and said a quick prayer.

Schultz waited for the noise to die down before continuing. "Daniel Fernantin da Zamora, callsign 'Leo'; would have been the fourth, but he managed to escape his binds and flee into the Citadel shortly after the attack started. He even managed to save one of the Alliance Army first responders before passing out from his injuries.

He is currently in surgery, but is expected to recover within a few months.

As for the other three…" Schultz paused again, an aggrieved expression crossing his normally stoic and professional bearing.

He took a deep breath, "DNA testing has revealed their identities to be Alliance Army Captain Abel 'Phoenix' Arsenault, Sergeant Hissa 'Dragoness' al-Asad, and Segeant Jamal 'Lion' Daoud; Good friends of mine, and colleagues of Major Lee.

Phoenix and his team has… had… spent the last month undercover inside an Eayan Allah cell.

Our current theory is that Phoenix attempted to warn Citadel Security; while trying to kill the local EA cell in the Zakera Ward to delay or reduce the effects of the impending attack. As you can see by the pictures, it didn't go well; but until Staff Sergeant Zamora regains conciseness, we won't know for sure.

The four of them were captured, tortured, and killed; with only Zamora escaping."

Schultz took off his reading glasses, and rubbed his eyes; and I knew what he was about to say was going to be bad, if only because of his rapidly changing demeanor.

"And they weren't executed with a bullet to the head; no… Staff Sergeant Zamora would not have been able to escape. He was already suffering from moderate hypothermia, and it wasn't from the cold weather and snow; he was dressed in stolen clothes

After torturing them for at least two weeks; EA locked the four Operators inside a freezer, stripped them naked, hung their broken bodies by four meat hooks, and left them to die of their wounds or hypothermia.

Sergeant al-Assad, had been posing as Sergeant Daoud's 'wife'; she was raped multiple times, by at least three different men according to the samples recovered. Her legs had been broken, all her nails ripped out, choked and water boarded multiple times; and that's just the tip of the iceberg." Schultz hissed as he pulled up the pictures; and I averted my eyes and looked down.

I never liked seeing a fallen Ghost; but this was just cruelty.

Everyone else in the room, except Kirrahe and Wrex, now looked positively lived; but everyone stayed in their seats and stayed quiet, no one saying a word as Schultz kept talking while he brought up more pictures.

"Sergeant Zamora had both shoulders dislocated and improperly realigned; his left kneecap shot, and all the bones in the left leg broken, broken jaw, all the ribs on his right side broken or cracked…

The list just goes on and on.

Our target for this and all the other atrocities listed above; is the newly designated Terrorist Organization, the Triumvirate."

Schultz pulled up a new picture; this time it was of a web of pictures. Some of them were just framed in shadows, others had high definition photos. It looked like Schultz had copied Ghost Recon Wildlands and mimicked the spider web of potential targets.

"There are currently three Leaders you need to know about; the underbosses and other less important Commanders we'll get to later.

The first and most public out of all of them, is Former Turian Spectre Saren Arterius.

He is the 'leader' of this gang of undesirables; and incredibly intelligent and dangerous. Thanks to data that has been thoughtfully provided by our friends in the Migrant Fleet; we have learned that Mr. Arterius has gathered an Army of Geth, all obedient to him, and him alone."

He quickly pulled up another audio file; watching the room to gauge everyone's reactions while I listened to the audio file. _"All Hail the Savior! Death to the Warmongers! We follow only the Prophet!"_ a chorus of presumably Heretic Geth chorused.

Schultz gave a dry smile as he watched everyone look at each other uncomfortably; "Egotistical little shit, isn't he?

If you're wondering how he has swayed these Geth to his control, well it's very simple; with the help of a virus created by a rouge Salarian mad scientist by the name of Dr. Saleon, under the pseudonym of Dr. R. Heart.

But we'll get back to him later."

Garrus tensed in his seat and leaned forward; but seemed to restrain himself with some effort. Shepard threw him a concerned look before turning her attention back to the screen, idly picking at the edges of her new cloak.

I just did my best to ignore them both; mostly to keep up the illusion that I hadn't been keeping up with them.

"Next up; we have the Pirate Admiral Ka'hairal Balak.

A former Batarian Spectre that was removed from his office shortly after the Skyllian Blitz on account of evidence provided by a young Alliance Army Captain by the name of Hyrum Grant. The evidence contained transactions, and video evidence that Balak had helped fund the Pirate attacks on the Alliance.

Needless to say, Balak didn't take it well… at all."

Everyone looked at the General; even I was caught off guard by that one, but then I didn't know all that much about Grant pre-GST. Most of my private efforts to dig into his past hadn't turned up anything substantial.

Grant remained stoic and kept sweeping his eyes over the room; even as everyone shifted their attention back to the screen.

The audio file brought up another familiar voice, one that made my blood boil and want to reach for my revolver in my shoulder holster. _"Humanity is a stain on this Galaxy! We must remove their technology and bring them into the fold as a protectorate of the Batarians. They are not ready to face this galaxy, and these savages will soon dominate us all by forcing their culture upon us; and see to it that we are their slaves if we do not do something about it. If it means killing every male, female, and child to ensure the protection of this galaxy and my people; then we must do so without hesitation!"_

Everyone looked at each other as Schultz spread his hands apart theatrically; "For all the humans in the room right now, I'm pretty sure that language sounds familiar.

Let's see, swap 'Batarians' with 'Aryan' or 'The Worker'; and switch humanity with 'The Jews' or 'The Capitalists' and _gasp_. All of a sudden, I'm looking at the manifestos of Hitler and Lenin.

Quite the nasty piece of work, I will say.

Now then; we have at last come to the biggest mystery to us all."

He typed in some commands and quickly brought up the grainy at best image; of the man surrounded in shadows, his face completely covered by Islamic robes while his eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses.

Everyone leaned forward in their seats; taking in the grainy at best image.

"The Imam… the title refers to an Islamic leadership position. It is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque and Muslim community among Sunni Muslims. The best equivalent catch all term I can find would simply be 'Priest'.

You see; Eayan Allah started out as a loose coalition of freedom fighters bent on protecting a chain of Islamic dominated worlds that wanted complete autonomy from the Systems Alliance; founded very shortly before the first contact war.

They were pretty much a private army or state run militia." Schultz explained.

Shepard and I looked at each other, then back at the images flashing across the screen; both of us silently acknowledging the fact that Schultz, Grant, and Anderson were giving the public relations version of EA's origins.

As much as it bugged me to keep the Imam's bloody and ruthless rise to power, and the Systems Alliances brutal suppression of the Islamic faith a secret; I knew that everyone would just want to focus on him rather than take out Saren and Balak.

I could see that Shepard was having the same thought I was as Schultz continued speaking.

"Then the Skyllian blitz happened, and the 3 independent Islamic worlds were hit the hardest; New Kurdistan is the friendliest with the rest of the Galaxy, but it's essentially humanities Illium.

Urzikstan has frosty relations with the Alliance, but is not openly hostile either since the Alliance has at least made some efforts to helping them after the blitz.

And then there is Tajicstan; which is very openly hostile to all outsiders, a place where idiots and suicidal aliens go to die. Now, keep in mind there are many people on Tajicstan that welcome outsiders; provided you aren't Batarian. But it's essentially a dice toss on every interaction to see if the person will gut you or not.

Hegemony Admiral Gar'dawar's occupation has certainly thrown a wrench into the works there, and the Alliance has been fighting a proxy war ever since his invasion and occupation.

After the blitz, most of the old leaders died; either in combat, or under mysterious circumstances. The kind of deaths you would find after the 'Night of the Long Knives'; one shot dead in his bathroom, another with his throat slashed in an alleyway, etc.

Many others, of course, were killed in 'The Great Purge' during the Imams rise to power within the Islamic Triple Alliance. After that, the young radicals that only remembered fighting aliens, seized control of Eayan Allah; with the Imam backing them. But no one knows who he is, what he looks like, where he came from. He only talks with a black hologram that shows no features.

We need to find him; and the only way to do that, is to track him through his underlings."

I could see everyone except Kirrahe take a minute to process all the info that Schultz had just dumped on them.

Wrex in particular seemed to be most interested when Schultz had said the words 'The Night of the Long Knives'; probably being reminded of his father's attempt to kill him.

Schultz typed in a few words, and the images began to wink out; the spider web of targets again replacing the screen. "Each of these leaders has a whole host of Underbosses and lieutenants that we have to go through if we ever hope at getting a shot at the kingpins. And we have to go after all three at the same time, even if we practically dismantle all their operations; we take only one out, the other two will cut and run.

As of right now; the Species National Security Act is in effect. All of you have been recruited for this mission because of your skills, abilities, experience; and above all, the distinct ability to work with other species with no notable incidents of racism or prejudice.

Which is exactly what we need right now. General Grant, do you have anything to add sir?" Schultz asked, turning to the General, quickly typing in another command as the General stepped forward, adjusting his Beret as he did so.

Grant surveyed the room and nodded, "All Intelligence assets currently assigned to investigating or infiltrating the Triumvirate have been diverted to answer directly to us. We are working outside the law ladies and gentleman; consider this campaign as a badge of temporary Spectreship.

We are taking the gloves off. No rules; no line, except for the one you draw for yourself.

I won't lie to you all; this campaign will involve many unpleasant and unsavory duties. The Council has essentially given us carte blanche to unleash hell on Saren, the Imam, and Balak; they want this threat to Galactic safety eliminated, but they want it done covertly.

If word got out to the general public about all of us working together; the political fallout would not be pleasant. As it stands, many of you must prepare yourselves for covert operations."

Everyone began nodded and grinning; even Kirrahe looked eager and ready to go.

The web of enemies and targets quickly collapsed in on itself and winked out; replaced with a very familiar symbol that had me fighting to keep a big stupid grin off my face.

"This will be a very long, and secret war; we anticipate at least a year, perhaps longer. But this mission will only end when the Imam, Saren, and Balak are dead or within custody." Grant continued. "In addition to all the species Intelligence data, we have also contracted Skell Tech to provide you all with the latest tech, weapons, and medical research to improve our chances of victory. Welcome to Combined Counter-Terror Task Force 141 Ladies and Gentleman."

* * *

**A/N: First off, I want to apologize for taking such a long time to get this to you guys.**

**I was busy taking online classes and the like; and was spending every waking minute studying my ass off to try and pass the class so I don't have to take it again.**

**The GST Stealth Cloak is more like a Poncho than a Cloak; and the one that August gave Shepard looks like the Poncho Clint Eastwood wore in "The Good The Bad and The Ugly", just with a Black base color, and the patterns are the N7 blood red and it has a hood. Both August and Shepard wear the Poncho like Eastwood does, so it looks more like a cloak or a cape.**

**I don't really have much to say otherwise; just keep an eye out for the next chapter, and the link to my discord is ****rUQYqjJ****; check my profile for a more up to date link if this doesn't work.**

**I would love a TV Tropes page; and if you're interested in doing fanart or anything like that just PM or join the discord.**

**I'm still doing submissions for the GST Side Stories; if you want to be a part of this Alternate Universe just let me know.**

**Leave a review and tell me what you all think.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	18. Spirit Hunt

**A/N: Link to my discord is ****rUQYqjJ****; check my profile for a more up to date link if this doesn't work. I also have a new Story, Co-Written with Ian the Mechanic; it's called Half Life: Entanglement, a HL-ME crossover story. Check it out on my account here on ; or hop over to Archive of Our Own where Ian will be Posting it.**

**Adding to that, we have two new GST Side stories coming up; one will be posted in tangent with this chapter, and the other a few days later. Hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

_**SSV Normandy SR-1**_**; February 25th, 2183 CE/AD, 0230 Hours**

I fought back a yawn as I stepped into the elevator; brushing off imaginary dust from my Tri-Color Desert BDU, and adjusting my leather shoulder holster for my revolver. Most everyone was asleep; as far as I could tell, only the Quarians and the night shift were awake at the moment.

_Fucking Insomnia…_ I grumbled to myself as the Elevator reached the main deck.

I had minor insomnia, meaning that I had trouble sleeping in even the best of times unless I completely tired myself out. Normally that didn't matter, since our job as Ghosts tended to run me ragged; trekking through a mountain range tended to wear you out.

And being in the field was like a light switch, I could fall asleep on command.

But when it was all peaceful and quiet; I couldn't fall asleep in a king sized bed with Egyptian cotton sheets and the air conditioner turned up. And I certainly wasn't going to sleep on a cot with my carry on sleeping bag in a room full of snoring men and women. Apparently Turians, Asari, and Krogan could all snore along with humans; who would have figured.

There weren't enough sleeping pods to go around; which in all honesty was fine since they never seemed to work for me. So Shepard had set up a bunch of cots in the hanger bay; and with my help, the Quarians had strung up a bunch of hammocks in the engine room, which Adams and the other engineers had taken to using as well. I honestly felt like I was living on a submarine; with cramped corridors and so many makeshift sleeping areas and rec rooms.

Some nights I could sleep peacefully; others I couldn't sleep at all.

Walking to the mess hall where several tables sat, I strolled up to the counter and grabbed a metal pot; filled it with water while turning on the electric stove and grabbing a tea bag. After a minute of letting it stew; I dropped the bag in and quickly squeezed the bags to make sure I got as much tea as possible.

Then I got a ceramic cup, and put some ice cubes in it; and after a minute of letting the tea bags soak, I poured some into my mug and let it cool for a bit before drinking. No sweeteners or a lemon to augment its taste, but that was something I was used to; and no caffeine to exacerbate my sleeping troubles, so it was a win for me.

_Beep._

Looking down at my omnitool, I raised an eyebrow at seeing a PM from Joker; _"Hey Chief Spook, that tea looks good; would you mind bringing me some?"_

Giving a light chuckle, I poured another glass; but kept it warm, since Joker was not a southern aristocrat like I was. _Always have to tolerate the heathens for they know not what they do._ Chuckling again at my very poorly thought out and bad joke; I walked up to the cockpit with the two Navy handleless mugs in my hands.

Upon arriving, I could see only the junior auxiliary crew were there; and no co-pilot or navigator.

Poor Joker was stuck up here all day with only bathroom breaks and exercise breaks to stimulate his muscles. He slept in that chair; he couldn't go anywhere else realistically, as one trip could potentially result in him shattering his bones.

I frowned as I walked up to him.

In my mind, there were standards for usefulness outweighing liabilities; and Joker came close to toeing that line for me. So much so that I was considering having Skell Tech develop an exoskeleton for Joker; at least so he could move semi-normally.

I had to wonder how he got this job; beyond the SA Military being way more politically correct than the militaries of my old world.

Shaking off my thoughts, I walked up to the Pilot and cleared my throat to let him know I was there. Spinning around; Joker grinned and nodded in thanks, "Thanks spook, if you don't mind me asking; what are you doing up so late… or early if one considers the time."

Tilting my head, I instinctually singed; _"Couldn't sleep."_

Joker frowned, "What?"

Shaking my head, I cleared my throat again; "I couldn't sleep; my apologies, I tend to resort to sign language when I'm tired or stressed." I explained, taking a sip of tea; savoring the cool liquid as I sipped it.

Joker shrugged, "Eh, I've seen weirder quirks before; and good god do you sound so southern, should I grab my cowboy hat and leather duster and round up a posse? Where are you from anyway Spook? Texas?" He asked with a shit faced grin.

Lightly shaking my head, I gave a slow blink, _Have mercy for he knows not what he asks,_ "Southern Maryland actually, the Charles-Saint Mary's peninsula specifically; just north of Saint Mary's City." I replied, taking another sip.

Joker straightened in his chair; "Wait, you actually live near the Basilica? Good god, I would have to sell all my organs just to rent an apartment in the city; much less own one of those plantations." He exclaimed.

I just laughed; "Considering the fact that my family owned that land back when St. Mary's city was just a backwoods tourist attraction with a population of a hundred people, I think we got a rather good bargain for it."

Joker opened and closed his mouth for a moment; "How big is your property? Five, six acres?"

I just gave a sigh, it really was sad that for inner colonists that was considered a plantation; "It's a little less than 1.2 square kilometers, about 295 acres… give or take one or two." I replied sheepishly.

Now Joker gave me a hard look; "What's the name of your home? Your last name is Lee…"

I quickly cut him off, "I'll tell you Joker, but you better not tell anyone else on this ship; that goes for all of you." I called out to the rest of the graveyard shift technicians; who had the grace to look ashamed for eavesdropping. Taking a breath, I said; "Zekiah Mansion."

There was a beat as Joker's mouth opened and closed silently, much like a fish; before he finally asked, "And all your private enterprises on that property?"

"My Great Grandpep started them, but my old man really made them take off; WW1 reenactments became a lot more popular with the kids after all those Armistice Day throwback traditions got started. They rake in a lot of money, because the real battlefields all get snapped up by 'official ceremonies'; and no one else seems to understand just how profitable it is. I won't tell you how much we make from that because I don't keep track of it; my family's lawyers do that for me.

The Boy Scout Summer Camp property is only partly owned by us; we just own the camping areas since they double as resting areas for the reenactors for the WW1 trenches. All the money we get from that goes to charities and maintaining the facilities we do own in that area.

The Tobacco Fields are actually very small; they're mostly for personal use and local sales and only account for about a thousand credits on a good year.

The Vineyards is where most of our money comes from; you would not believe how popular Maryland Wine is becoming all across the Galaxy. Even the 'young' wines still taste very good, despite it being… y'know… wine." I explained, before cutting myself off, realizing that Joker was becoming paler and paler with every word out of my mouth.

"Holy Jesus hanging on a cross Christ; what the hell are you doing working down here with us peasants?" He demanded, probably only half joking.

I shrugged, "My parents and sisters' deaths; I didn't really see a reason to stay there anymore. My best friend owns a Bar and Grill near the property. The two of us started it up back when we were teenagers, and I own a healthy portion of that as well; but he's been running it just fine without me for years at this point and all of the hired hands and camp counselors maintain the crops, the WW1 battlefield, and the Boy Scout camp with no problems." I took another sip of my tea, "Hell, up until recently I had no reason to ever go back there until…" I trailed off, remembering who I was talking too.

Mentally cursing my sleep deprived state, I just shook my head as I drank the rest of my tea.

"Until you discovered you knocked a girl up and had a kid; or something to that effect?" Joker asked, slightly sarcastic; but I could detect the prying undertones in his voice. It made sense, Anderson and Shepard had probably told him to chat me and the other Ghosts up to get us to slip up something.

What that might be, I had no idea; but considering the fact that Jahenne and Garrus knew I had a Quarian daughter, there was no point in hiding it. "Something to that effect Flight Lieutenant." I replied, a hint of steel entering my voice to let Joker know that he was treading into dangerous territory now.

To the man's credit; he knew that he'd gone too far for me and backed off on the family questions. Instead he asked, "So… what are you doing here then? The Commander certainly seems to respect you, although she's certainly suspicious of you; can't say I blame her, with all the Army spooks that we've been running into as of late."

I just shrugged, "Just trying to clean up the ugly in the galaxy Flight Lieutenant." I replied, draining the last of my tea; I noticed my omnitool flash briefly, meaning that I had just received a priority message from the _Spirit of Fire_.

"Alright, I'm sufficiently tired now; see ya in the morning." I said, giving a loud yawn to further sell the act so I could leave and go read the message.

"Good night sir." Joker replied.

* * *

Joker waited until he was sure the Major was gone, then he said; "Huh… didn't peg him as one of the richest people in human space."

A Petty Officer just laughed; "I told you guys, his last name's Lee, and he looks an awful lot like War Minister Lee."

Another technician snorted; "Yeah, yeah… you'll get your credit chits; you know how much he's worth?"

Joker just shook his head; "About fifteen billion credits I think, counting liquid assets like his stocks in Skell Tech; give or take a few. Jesus, I thought Shepard was rich; she has about ten million credits in her account, and she's a goddamned Spectre and the Alliance's media darling." He exclaimed.

"Eh, the media hates rich people like him; and he's a spook, so he doesn't get a lot of attention." A midshipman noted.

"The only reason I knew about him was because of the buzz surrounding Skell Tech when it first got started, the Lee's were the first to openly invest in them; tabloids covered it for a few weeks, and some press tried to interview him since he's the Lee family patriarch now. But his servants, sorry, his 'farm hands' chased them all away before they could enter his property." Joker noted, doing air quotes at 'farm hands' to let everyone know what he really thought about them.

As the graveyard shift quietly gossiped about their resident Army Major and other topics; none of them noticed the shimmer moving in the shadows, leaving the room while they talked.

* * *

Many considered Jahenne 'Jane' Haniel Shepard to be a little eccentric to say the least.

She had odd quirks that everyone could plainly see; her habit of sneaking around after dark was one of them. Garrus was asleep in the cargo bay, meaning that she didn't feel comfortable sleeping yet; so she had decided to take her new poncho out for a little spin.

So far it was holding up incredibly well, especially considering the fact that it only covered around sixty percent of her body. But the dim lighting and the fact that everyone was tired at the moment probably helped with that.

Jane frowned as she walked around the halls of the ship; considering everything she had just overheard.

She remembered meeting August and his team on Arcturus all those years ago; _well three years ago_, she amended, but it sounded cooler saying it the other way. All four of them had been much more cheerful and rather fresh faced in some ways; but all four had carried themselves just like all the other SF operators she had met in her life.

But time had changed them it seemed; even Colt, with his seemingly endless jokes and stories had become more tightlipped and grim, although they had opened up somewhat after some awkward icebreakers between the teams.

She had a pretty good idea what had changed them though.

"Evening Ell Cee, or Morning depending on how you look at it." A familiar, tired voice called out from the mess hall as she passed; jostling her from her thoughts.

Turning in surprise, she saw August sitting at one of the tables; closing his omnitool.

"How-"

"Did I see you while your poncho's cloak is active? Simple, in training our instructors would hunt us while wearing them; so you learn to look for the telltale signs of it being in use. The big one is the distinctive shimmer of the chameleon adaptive camo trying to keep up with the background as you move." He explained.

"Elementary dear Watson." Jane replied, allowing a hint of sarcasm to ease into her voice as she walked over to sit down across from her Ground team XO. Funny how Pressely was XO of the ship, and Lee was XO of ground forces; less work for her to do overall.

As she sat down, she looked over at August's omnitool; "I saw you receive that message, what was it about?" she asked.

"A… resupply ship will meet up with us tomorrow; they'll be carrying more Armor Vests and Tri-Color Desert BDU's for the rest of 1-4-1's ground operators. They won't have the invisibility camo ours have, since they're pretty expensive in comparison to our Poncho's; and the Poncho's are earned so they won't have those either. But they still have a lot of neat bells and whistles that the others will like. Ammo, guns, and a bunch of other equipment too; and some upgrades for the _Normandy._" He said, closing his omnitool while leaning back in his chair.

Jane frowned angrily; _of course they can't give us this stuff while we're in port. They have to stop us while we're on mission._ She grumbled silently.

August stared at the wall, his eyes unfocused, before he blinked and looked back at Jane; peering through his round wireless glasses, his moustache and growing stubble giving him an archaic appearance. "So… you didn't tell us where we're going."

It wasn't a question, and she knew it; even with this new task force, everything was rushed and sloppily run. As a result, for fear of security leaks; the council had been essentially drip feeding her Intel, and had only just before lights out given her 1-4-1's first mission.

She had intended to tell the crew in the morning, but he was her unofficial deputy; so she felt somewhat obligated to tell him. "We're heading to this backwater world called Therum. Some Asari bigwigs' daughter is leading an Archeological expedition; and a small fleet of Geth were reported to have been seen heading in its direction." She explained, staring off into the distance; and missing the flash of recognition in August's eyes.

"Hm… you're unsatisfied?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"With the Triple Alliance, Balak's Pirate Fleet, and Sarens Army of Geth; I feel like all the talent on this ship is being wasted with a simple pickup job." She admitted, rubbing her eyes.

"Maybe it's a test; we got about a week to get there, and we barely started running drills together yesterday. I don't know about you, but I cannot have been the only one that saw the abysmal cooperation yesterday." He noted.

Jane actually laughed, thinking about the team exercises they had gone through; one of which had involved defusing a fake bomb, with one person manhandling it and the other reading out instructions while talking over the comms in a different part of the ship.

Only August's team, herself, and Garrus had managed to successfully defuse the 'bomb'; "Heh, I'm surprised that 'Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes' game isn't out on the market. I know a lot of kids would love to play a game like that as a trust of friendship." She mused.

August chuckled along with her; "We originally made the game way more antagonistic; like sending electric shocks into your hands through your omnitool, deleting random bits of the bomb defusal manual and force you to restart your omnitool to get it back… but I think that would have taken things a little too far." He admitted.

"You don't think?" Shepard asked sarcastically, before they both chuckled and shook their heads.

They sat there for a few minutes, August being his usual quiet self; while Jahenne wasn't sure what to say. What was there to talk about? They had met once during lunch on her mother's birthday, and hadn't kept in contact since; yet here they were talking like it hadn't been more than a few day's since they'd last seen each other.

Finally, after working up the courage; she asked, "So you finally hook up with your girlfriend?"

Jane cringed and had to stop herself from laughing at August's shocked and confused expression; and had to bite down on her lip at his utterly baffled, "What?!"

Shaking her head, Jane said; "June's birth mother? You said that she was on Arcturus with you guys because it was your turn to look after her; or something like that, I admit I don't remember the exact reason." She admitted.

August's eyes became unfocused for a second, and his gaze grew mournful as he said; "June's birth mother is dead… was dead long before you and I met." He gave Jane a sad smile, "She was so young that she doesn't even remember her mother; but…" His face reddened slightly, "I have been seeing this Quarian woman, a Doctor; she was picked up by Illium's Secret Police and a friend and I happened to be in the neighborhood at the time. I saved her life, and she's giving June a future with her work…" He trailed off, the expression on his face becoming guarded.

Jane didn't miss the hesitation and narrowed her eyes; that wasn't an embarrassed declaration of being in love, no he had almost revealed a big secret of some kind. Normally, she didn't bother with pumping spooks for information; beyond filing away their slip ups as something to be investigated.

But August was a little too honest for his occupation; so Jane decided it was worth a try, "You said she's a Quarian right?"

August shrugged, his guarded expression not leaving him; "I did…"

Jane leaned forward, a slight smirk dawning on her face; "Zekiah Mansion is on Earth; about an hour commute to Baltimore by Eezo taxi's right? And you, your girlfriend, and June live together when you're not deployed right?" she asked.

"Yeah, where are you going with this Jane?" He asked impatiently.

Jane's smile grew as she moved in for the kill, "She wouldn't happen to be Dr. Ziva'Lorah would she?"

"Who is that?" August asked, raising an eyebrow.

It was so straight-faced that Jane almost bought it… almost; but the microscopic twitch in his right eye gave it away to her. "One of John's Hopkin's leading Disease and Autoimmune researchers? Started up only two years ago; sponsored by the Lee family estate? First Quarian admitted to Johns Hopkins… Ringing any bells?" She asked sarcastically.

"Not really, no…" August replied, but the tiny smirk on his face told her all she needed to know.

"Of course you don't." Jane grumbled, while August just shook his head.

"Hmph, well since you inquired about my love life I get to inquire about yours; has Garrus popped the question yet? Or has he been too chicken to do so?" He joked.

"No… not yet, I think he was worried about his father while we were on the Citadel in all honesty. Plus he wants it to be traditional, not just some Vegas 'sign here please' wedding. And with 1-4-1 and this whole 'War on Terror' going on, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon." Jane answered, sadly looking at her ring finger as she talked.

August understandably sobered up rather quickly, leaning back in his chair as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes; "'How do you love your family and leave 'em to go to war? How do you live when you have no life?' Those are two questions that members of the GST ask ourselves every day when we join up; doing a job that will be classified until long after we are dead and buried, and come home to deal with apathetic people who either congratulate us while having no idea how insensitive they seem to be. Or conversely deal with people who decry us as baby eaters, war mongers, and imperialists; all while they go and happily sip their vegetarian milkshakes, sleep in their homes that would be considered first class in the 20th century, and go to their job grumbling that they don't need a military to protect them."

Jane didn't say anything as August trailed off, looking at her with an apologetic expression. "I think it would be best that we keep this entire conversation between us." He said.

Jane nodded, "Agreed… I was about to head down to engineering, would you like to join me?"

August gave a tired smile, "Sure… why not?"

* * *

San'Maru nar Gatta wormed his way along one of the main ME Core support trusses.

Since coming aboard, nearly all the Pilgrims had volunteered to work for their passage. In his and Tali'Zorah's case, that meant engineering. Chief Adams had assigned him to what the Human crew called, 'the Dog-Watch'. San was still getting used to the human insistence on a pseudo Day/Night cycle; as if sunrise had any meaning in space.

That wasn't the only oddity about human ships.

Some of the Normandy's living spaces were large enough to host an Asari Acrobiotic performance; the trade off were impossibly small maintenance spaces like the one he was in right now. Luckily (or not) he was small enough to fit and check a loose harness the crew had been complaining about.

"No, I was there at the beginning of May last year for something called St. John Paul's Mass." San froze as he heard the Commander's voice below him. "I'll admit I didn't follow what was going on, but the architecture was incredible."

"Oh, I know; I went there on Pilgrimage myself." San rolled over to look down at that. Below him was Commander Shepard, partially wrapped in some kind of active camouflage cape. And next to her… "That was ages ago, but I still have my Jerusalem Pilgrims Cross."

The Quarian Pilgrim stared at the man who had saved him and the rest from that monster Muhandis. Was that why he had done it? Did humans have a similar practice to Quarian Pilgrimage?

"Really? Cause I've seen your Dress Uniform, and I can name every award on it even if I can't know how you earned half of them, and you don't wear a Cross: Navy, Flying, Victoria or otherwise."

The Major chuckled. "You may be the best thing since sliced bread, but you're not the Pope."

Both San and the Commander looked at him oddly. "It's only supposed to be worn during religious events or in the presence of the Pope. As the ship doesn't currently have a Chaplain, and Pope Dominic is still touring Council Religious sites, I'm unlikely to have cause to put it on." He explained upon seeing the expression on Shepard's face.

San wondered who this 'Pop Domic' was. Maybe 'Pop' was like the Admiralty back in the Flotilla? Shepard didn't seem to know this Pop Domic, but she was with the Systems Alliance Fleet. Was it like in the Flotilla, where there were distinct Admirals for each part of society? This was the first time San had learned anything about human society, other than Engineer's Mate Roshi insisting that San was 'a good omen'.

* * *

"You know I've always wondered about all the bad blood between the Protestants and you Catholics; Doesn't really make much sense to me, seeing as you both believe in God and Jesus and all that." Shepard admitted, looking uncomfortable not knowing something.

I for one just chuckled and shook my head, "And you say you met the Holy Father." I snarked while rolling my eyes.

"Well I wasn't going to ask him in front of a bunch of Reporters and Bishops and Priests." She replied sarcastically. "Come on, we got a lot of time to kill; it has to be complicated right?"

I winced, "well… not really… humanity is good and bad at many things; and holding grudges falls in the former category. You have to remember, when the Catholic-Protestant split happened the Catholic Church was insanely corrupt; and it had already allowed Constantinople, one of the pillars of Christianity, to fall to the Islamic hordes. And most of the bad blood that came after was the European Monarchs picking sides and the populace just trying to keep up with the dozens of new branches being formed." I explained.

I took a breath before continuing, Shepard looking pretty interested to my surprise. "When it comes down to it, it was just old grudges and propaganda by both sides that kept the feud going until the late 20th century. It wasn't until Trotskey's constant attempts at starting communist revolutions across the world, and St. John Paul the Great mending bridges between the three faiths and all the Protestant sects did people start acting like adults."

"You know your history." Shepard noted, nodding in approval.

I shrugged sheepishly, "I did briefly consider becoming a member of the Priesthood or a Deacon before I joined the GST; I had to learn my history." I admitted.

* * *

San was fixated on the two below him.

Most species never talked about their less-than-stellar moments in history, especially not with Quarians. But here was an inside view on the messy, stumbling steps the SA had taken to become the rising political and military star of the Citadel Alliance. Granted, his translator was giving him a lot of feedback, meaning there were a lot of words being said that weren't in it's records.

Anyway, this business about Catlics and Protestors was huge.

If this kind of social and political divide could be healed before the humans had even reached the stars, then maybe they could help the Quarians with their own internal schisms. The Migrant Fleet wasn't immune to historical infighting, and there was a growing divide between the Reclaimers, those who wanted to retake Rannoch at all costs, and the New-Dawn movement that wanted to find a new homeworld and clean their suits of the failures of the past.

Then there was Major 'Pilgrim' Lee; he'd wanted to be, what? An ascetic like the Athame priestesses or Enkindler proselytizers he'd avoided on the Citadel? And what did this 'Constant-pokel' have to do with the Pop? He'd have to ask around when he was off shift.

* * *

"You? A Priest?" She asked, seemingly trying not to laugh.

I gave her a look of mock hurt; "What? Can you imagine me doing something else?" before I laughed. "Yeah I get that look a lot whenever I tell people I had considered it." I shrugged, "Yeah, my Parents were ambivalent over the subject; my old man probably would have supported me no matter what, while my mother probably would have bellyached about not having grandkids since I would have to take a vow of chastity and my sister was married to her job."

Shepard just shook her head, "Still… you becoming a Priest, now I can't unsee you wearing those white robes and black collared shirts everywhere you went." She admitted.

"Eh, Zekiah Mansion was near St. Mary's Basilica; and since the Lee's are the closest thing we North American's have to royalty next to the Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Kennedy's and all the other old families it was kind of expected we would go there for Mass every sunday.

"Monsignor O'Flaherty was a Marine veteran you know; and he almost talked me into becoming a military Chaplain." I started laughing as I suddenly remembered a story my old man had told me.

"What's so funny?" Jane asked in curiosity.

After a few minutes i managed to catch my breath, i said; "Monsignor O'Flaherty was an old man by the time I was old enough to understand what was going on in Mass and all that. He was just a simple Priest when my Old Man was in primary school. Fresh out of the Marine Corps and all that; and one time there were these two kids that got into a fight during lunch at the Catholic School my dad went to.

"Well Father O'Flaherty was walking by when two of the Sisters went up to him and said, 'Father! Father! two of the children are fighting, please stop them!'. Well Father went up to the ring that had formed where the two kids were fighting, and he started egging them on." I started laughing again at the shocked look on Shepard's face, "Yeah you heard me right; well the Sisters are tugging on his sleeves and his robes, begging him to break it up. and he said, 'nah! nah! let 'em fight and burn off their energy' all the while giving the kids advice on how to avoid the punches and hit harder."

Taking off my glasses, I laughed again as Shepard looked aghast at the concept of a Priest letting a fight continue, "Well after a minute or two he goes, 'alright kids that's enough'. and walks up to go break them up. Well just as he stepped up, one of the kids threw a punch and missed and nailed Father right in his crotch."

Now Shepard laughed, looked ashamed of herself as she did so.

"It gets better, Father O'Flaherty didn't even react beyond looking down and grunting. Then he reached down and grabbed the kid by his shirt collar and his belt loop, and threw him like five feet up and ten feet away onto one of the lunch tables. And then he reached down, did the same with the other kid; and threw him the opposite direction.

Then he brushed his hands and shirt off, looked at all the kids just staring at him, and cool as a cucumber he just said, 'Okay lunch is over; go onto your classes'. And just went back to his Office like nothing happened."

* * *

By now San was thoroughly confused; the Commander's reaction to the idea of Pilgrim Lee being a Priest fit his understanding of religious practitioners as pacifists, but the Priest in this story sounded more like Batarian Propaganda against the Turians.

What kind of bizarre people were these?

A chime sounded in his suit telling him he had ten minutes until his mid shift break. He was normally grateful for the Human work/break cycles, but the suddenness of the alarm made him flinch. Once his heart and breathing were back to normal, he glanced down at the two staff officers. Or at least, he glanced down to where they had been a moment ago. He hadn't heard any of the bulkhead doors cycle, and he hadn't been distracted long enough for them to have wandered into another part of the Core bay.

Where did they go?

His answer came when two pairs of hands seized his suit and yanked him off the truss. He was indelicately pinned to a bulkhead while the heads of Commander Shepard and Major Lee loomed over him. It took him a few moments to remember the active camouflage cloaks the two insisted on wearing everywhere. That was a small comfort after being caught eavesdropping by his new Captain and her Special Forces subordinate. His family had warned him about shipping on alien vessels, and how terribly Quarians were punished for even minor offenses.

"I'm sorry ma'am, sir; I didn't mean to be eavesdropping! I was just securing a loose wire harness on the overhead truss." San pointed to where he had been a moment before.

Shepard looked unconvinced, though Lee barked out a short laugh. "A little late for trimming the verge, don't you think?" Shepard's laser focus shifted to Lee. The shorter human shrugged and threw open his cape. "Lord of the Rings? Gandalf and Sam?" Shepard's demeanor shifted slightly from stern to annoyed. "Bah, Williams would get the joke. Anyway you were doing pretty good until you flinched."

"Stalking Senior Officers is _not_ a skillset I want to promote outside of Field Operations teams." She moved one of her arms behind her and hooked her thumb through a belt loop. "This is still a Systems Alliance Naval vessel, not some tawdry Vancouver Spy action-thriller."

San was nearly in tears; shipboard justice was harsh enough for Quarians, but military punishments were the stuff of stories whispered in darkened cargo holds. "_Please don't make me go maskless! I promise never to work out of sight of a human crewmember! Please!"_

San's outburst strained both Shepard's and Lee's translators, though they were both fluent enough in Kheelish to get the gist. The Commander was used to dressing down subordinates, and had no small amount of pride in her ability to make even the frostiest of veteran spacers cringe and sweat. But this wasn't an enlisted person who'd gotten picked up by shore patrol for Drunk and Disorderly Conduct; this was a teenager who'd essentially been press-ganged onto her ship. The idea of endangering one of her crew as a punishment for _anything_, much less this minor social gaff was abhorrent.

Lee was no less appalled, but only for its reminder of the gross injustices which had been allowed to persist in Citadel space for centuries. It was one of the many (though not only) reasons he had made Zekiah Mansion available to Ziva, despite the 'scandal' it caused within the DelMarVa social elite.

Let them gossip; it wasn't like he attended any of the Southern Balls anyway.

Lee and Shepard shared a look, before he crouched down looking the terrified Quarian in his eyes; then he said, in fluent Kheelish, _"Calm down son; we aren't going to crucify you just for listening in on a random conversation."_

San gulped, and backed up slightly. Shepard opened her mouth to say something, but Lee shot her a quick look and she quickly closed it; _"How old are you San?_

"_I-I am sixteen." _He stammered.

"_Really? you sound a bit young to be going out on your own; what's the standard age before you go out on a Pilgrimage?" _He asked, Shepard watching the whole while; amazed that he was speaking Kheelish.

For San, the Major's accent had an odd twang to it, and it's syntax was a little broken; but he could easily understand what the Major was saying. It was oddly comforting to hear another speaking Kelish, despite the little enclave they had on the ship. _"It's seventeen, just before physical Maturity; but I got an early start." _San replied.

"_Well… Ms. Zorah's twenty if i recall correctly." _Lee noted, raising an eyebrow.

"_Some start later because of family… I heard you talking about you going on a pilgrimage sir." _San wasn't sure what compelled him to mention it, but the Major's eyes brightened when he said it.

"_That's correct, I'm Western Roman Catholic; we're typically Baptised a few months after we're born, Confirmed when we turn thirteen, and many go on a Pilgrimage to the holy land at eighteen." _Lee explained.

"_Really?" _Now San was now longer cowering away in fear and was actually staring at the Major in wonder. _"Did the Commander choose to not go on a Pilgrimage like many of our Fleet Marines?" _He asked.

Lee looked over at Shepard, whose translator and her own understanding of Kheelish had allowed her to keep up with the conversation, and Shepard looked down at her feet awkwardly; Lee shrugged and turned his attention back to San, _"Jahenne is… Protestants don't go on Pilgrimages." _He explained lamely, not really familiar with any sects of Protestantism; he gave her a mock dirty look, _"Despite that, the lucky Girl got to meet the Holy Father. The closest I've ever been to him was being at the Vatican, but enough about us."_

Lee slowly stood up, grunting while San winced at hearing the cracks coming from the Majors knees and ankles. Then the Major held his hand out, and San stared for a moment before taking it; stifling a yelp of surprise as he was hoisted up to his feet.

There was a surprising amount of strength in such a small being.

Jane cleared her throat once San was on his feet and steady again. "While I don't condone voyeurism, I would never assign a punishment remotely close to '_going maskless_'." San nearly sagged back onto the floor in relief.

"I said I wouldn't risk your life, not that you were getting off." San gulped and stood straight. "I'll be opening an Unfavorable Information File on you. It will stay open for six months. If no further incidents occur which require disciplinary action, the file will be closed and erased. If however the file remains open for one year, or if enough incidents occur before then, I will personally deliver you back to the Migrant fleet and inform you ship of origin about your conduct while aboard mine." Jane leaned in and locked eyes with him. "Are we clear, Mr. Maru?"

"Yes Ma'am!" San nodded frantically while saluting, nightmare visions of being delivered back to the Flotilla in disgrace dancing through his head.

She rocked back on her heels and returned a jaunty salute. "Dismissed."

San was through the hatchway like a shot.

Lee whistled when the hatch cycled shut. "Jesus Commander, you don't pull punches. What would you do if _I_ got out of line?"

Jane gave him a side-eyed grin while walking back to the crew decks. "Tattle to the missus back on Earth."

"Hey now, there's no need for the nuclear option here!" He protested.

Shepard just ignored him, whistling a merry tune all the way back to her quarters.

* * *

I felt Pretty good considering that I had only gotten about three hours of sleep.

And somehow I still managed to get up before everyone else in the hangar bay; or I should say the secondary resting area since that's what it had become by this point. After our little run in with San, Shepard and I had both decided that it would probably be best if we went to bed since it was getting very late by that point.

Still, it had been an enlightening experience in more ways than one.

That being, I could find common ground with most Quarians regarding our shared experience of going through a Pilgrimage. Second, I would now be able to determine the general age of any Quarian I would be dealing with potentially; if they were on their Pilgrimage they would probably be in their teens, and if not then they would probably be in their twenties and thirties.

And most importantly, no spot on this ship was safe to discuss secrets.

I was already sitting at one of the tables in the mess hall while gripping my iced tea in a death grip, when my team staggered out of the elevator; grunting and yawning, and brushing imaginary dust off of their BDU's.

I waited until the three of them had sat down in front of me before I said, "We aren't secure on this ship."

All three were jostled out of their sleepy state and looked at me in confusion; "What do you mean boss?" Colt finally asked as he stared at my mug, probably assuming it was coffee.

"I mean we can't discuss classified materials on this ship at any time, even in the dead of night." I elaborated, quietly signing while I talked. All four knew SSL, since it was the only way to communicate silently while in the field; and they made sure to not look directly at me while I did so.

"_Joker see's everything, and the Quarians can fit anywhere." _I signed, frowning heavily; _"You have no idea who may be watching or if even Signing is safe; so NO monkey business, understood?" _

I made sure I signed while I talked on the off chance Joker was listening or watching; that way he would think it was just my 'quirk' acting up, as he called it. Even still, I played it safe; making sure that any person that could understand SSL and see anything the camera might have captured, would still be left in the dark without context.

"We got it Boss." Archer said, while Phil and Colt gave firm nods in understanding.

"Good," I gave them a small smile; "In lighter news, we'll be getting a supply drop from the _Spirit _today; all the items we've requested and the _Normandy's_ upgrades will be delivered sometime after lunch."

All three leaned forward, their eyes brightening in excitement; "You mean all the item's we've requested-" Archer started to ask before I cut her off.

"Retrieval team Jawa is delivering them this afternoon; just make sure you're in the hanger so you can claim your contraband."

* * *

It was lunch, and 1-4-1 was in the hangar bay; with the exception of Alenko and Shepard since as Naval officers they had to be on the bridge.

"Man these MRE's you Army guys have are way better than that reconstituted crap they feed us in the mess." One of the Marines was saying.

"Just wait till Leah gets the Galley all up and ready to go; I tell you what, if you had told me that a Quarian could make both Dextro and Levo based food taste good I would have called you insane, but here we are." Archer replied.

I just shook my head as I finished off the potato chips from my MRE; Jawa was due within the hour, so the hanger needed to be cleared as soon as possible. My team was pumped up, though they hid it well behind stoic professionalism.

Wrex, Shiala, Kirrahe, and Aethyta were all sitting together; quietly chatting. Or rather I should say Wrex just sat there eating, the others were chatting.

Tali, Garrus, Archer, Chief Warrant Officer Cal Longshanks who was one of the other Marines, and Gunnery Chief Williams sat in a rough circle; the three humans casually talking about the theological origins of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, while Garrus and Tali listened with rapt attention.

Sergeant Reegar, Corporal Ress, and Private Ciram were all sitting in a triangle eating nutrient paste while they listened to Colt tell one of his many 'stories'; and most of the _Normandy_'s Marine compliment were there too, sitting in a semicircle around him.

"So these two Marines board a flight to Houston…" He started.

"Marines and Planes… this ought to be good." Phil rumbled as he flipped through another page in his book.

"No sooner had they settled down in their seats than an Army Corporal came down the aisle and took the seat next to them. So the Corporal settles in, pulls off his boots, and gets comfortable. Now the two Marines take one look at this guy and decide they're gonna have a little fun with him.

After the flights in the air, the window seat turns to the Corporal and asks 'Hey buddy? You mind grabbing a drink for me?'

'No problem' The Army guy replied, and hops up to go grab one from the flight attendant.

Now as soon as he's gone, the Marine takes one of the Corporal's boots and spits in it."

All the Marines chuckled, while the Quarians shuddered. "That's just nasty." Ciram noted, sounding disgusted.

Colt just laughed, "Well the Corporal comes back with the drink; he's gettin comfortable again when the second Marine grins and says 'Hey man that drink looks good, would you mind getting one for me too?'

And the Corporal just grins and says, 'You bet' and hops up to go get another one.

As soon as he was gone, the Marine grabs the other boot and hocks a big ol' loogie right inside. Now the Marines sit back and enjoy their drinks. a couple hours later the bird touches down and the Corporal pulls on his boots.

Now right away he knows what's happened, he turns to the Marines who are both just giving him these shit-eating grins. And he says, 'How long must this go on? This hatred? This animosity? This spitting in boots and pissing in drinks'"

All the Marines groaned and the Quarians just set down their tubes of Nutrient paste in disgust.

I hid a smirk; as annoying as Colt's penchant for telling stories was at times, it was still a great icebreaker, and a good way to relieve tension when in the field but not in combat.

"_Major Lee to the Bridge. Major Lee to the Bridge."_ The ship's announcement system called out, prompting everyone to look up and then over at me.

I knew why they were calling me; but I just pretended to frown and set what little food I hadn't eaten and walked up to the ladders leading to the upper decks. They were technically only supposed to be used for emergencies; but that elevator was so slow that i just couldn't bring myself to use it when it was just me.

The fact I always got to the floor I wanted to go to at least a full minute before the damned thing only vindicated my beliefs on the matter. Shepard called me a toxic influence because other crewmembers and most of the Aliens had taken to following my example.

Reaching the top, I hopped off and started walking to the CIC where Shepard and Pressely were conversing quietly to each other.

"Major Lee reporting as ordered." I said, snapping to attention.

"Come over here Major, we got something unknown on our sensors." Shepard ordered.

I walked over, already figuring it was the _Marvin_ since it was right around the time they were supposed to show up. I leaned against the holotable and looked at where the _Normandy_ had detected the unknown.

I stared at it for a moment, then looked at Shepard; "You want me to clear the hanger in case we need to prepare for boarding?" I asked.

"Yes, if you would be so kind Major." Shepard replied, not taking her eyes off the blip on the map of the system.

I hit a button on my Omnitool and brought it up to my mouth, "Attention personnel; please clear the hanger bay and prepare for potential boarding action." Satisfied upon hearing my voice echo throughout the ship, I turned my attention back to the holotable.

"Whoever they are, they ain't moving; so if they're hostile they may be playing dead and will try and hit us when we get close." Pressely mused.

Just then, I heard a voice from Jokers Consol; _"_SSV Normandy,_ this is _ISV Marvin_ requesting approach clearance. How copy, over?" _It was male, and he had a faint spanish accent.

I didn't recognize him, but I did recognize the name; that was Hiram's ship.

"Uh… Commander?" Joker called, turning in his chair to look at us; but Shepard and I had already made our way to the back.

"Are these the people you were talking about Major?" Shepard asked, giving me the stink eye.

I just shrugged, "Probably, I-"

Another voice crackled to life on the comm's; and I couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face, _"Kingslayer Actual this is Marvin: Ziva says, 'call your daughter you deadbeat'. How copy, over?"_

Shepard looked at me and raised an eyebrow while I leaned over Joker's shoulder; and ignoring his weak protests I hit a key and said, "You're still a sonofabitch, you know that? Remind me again why I didn't leave you on Illium?" Both to show Shepard I knew the man speaking, and also to test to make sure it was really him.

Hiram Abiff just snorted, _"So I've been told; and you didn't leave me behind because you forgot how to dodge and were venting your spleen at the Civil Protection team. We've got a care package from Dr. Heliix. Permission to come alongside?"_ He asked.

I looked over at Shepard and nodded, "It's them."

Shepard frowned and I stepped back while she took my spot and leaned over Jokers shoulder to talk to them; while Joker just sat there with a resigned look on his face. "Marvin Actual, this is Normandy Actual. Who am I speaking with?" She asked.

It took a moment, which Hiram probably spent silently fanboying; before he said in a calm and collected voice, _"Apologies ma'am, this is Sgt Hiram Abiff, GST Transport and Retrieval Team Jawa aboard the _ISV Marvin_ with supplies and material. Over."_

Shepard nodded, and said; "Copy _Marvin_. We don't have you on our scopes."

Hiram just said, _"Standby _Normandy_, you will in a moment. _Marvin_ out."_

I just smirked as I saw the _Marvin_ appear from nowhere; though I was the only one who saw it since I was looking out the window's rather than at the sensors. It looked like a modernized and improved version of the _Hermes _from that Ridley Scott movie _The Martian_, though there were a few obvious differences.

No solar panels, shorter, and painted black rather than white.

"SSV Normandy_, this is _ISV Marvin_. Permission to dock portside, over?" _The first voice from earlier asked, and I heard Joker shift himself in his chair.

"Uh, roger; yeah, you can... where the fuck did you come from?" Joker yelped, swiveling his chair to look at the _Marvin_ looking completely flabbergasted.

Shepard blinked and actually took a step back in surprise, and many crewmen leaned back in their chairs to look out the window; Alenko standing up in the copilot's chair to get a better look at the _Marvin._

But Joker wasn't done it seemed, "No seriously! That looks like a museum piece, how the hell-"

Shepard leaned forward over his shoulder and hit the button for the Comm equipment to rout itself through her omnitool; cutting Joker off as she did so. "Marvin you are cleared to dock, portside fore." She said, sounding exasperated, but I could see that she was just as curious as everyone else at how an _Antique_ like the _Marvin_ could find itself all the way out here.

I could see the _Marvin _begin moving to the docking bay as the man from before said, _"Copy _Normandy_. Standby for handshake."_

I turned from the window and started walking to the elevator; "C'mon Alenko, let's go see what goodies Command's decided to give us."

* * *

Most everyone just stood or sat around the hanger; the Aliens curious as to what could elicit such a differing response from their human counterparts.

Alenko, Williams, and Shepard stood there with their guns and looking at the _Marvin_'s attached doors. They looked and probably were ready for a fight. Myself and Kingslayer in contrast were smiling, and while armed, we were completely at ease and ready to get our 'gifts' from the _Spirit of Fire_.

The airlock finished cycling and four Men in the same Tri-Color Desert BDU's as my team walked out, wearing patrol caps with their ranks pinned on.

A man of Spanish heritage walked forward, and saluted; a single black bar on his lapels and his Patrol cap. "Lt. Juan Rodriguez-Rivera and GST Retrieval Team Jawa, requesting permission to come aboard ma'am."

Shepard eyed him and the others up; before sweeping her poncho open and placing her fists on her hips, "Granted, but I'll want to inspect those before I'll let it onboard." She replied, pointing at the crates Hiram and his other two teammates were leading.

Hiram, being the guy that he was, just opened his mouth without thinking; "Fair enough. It's just Supplies and Contraband." There was a round of choking noises from around the receiving area as he unlocked the case and opened it up, I just smirked as Shepard sent me a look of bewilderment.

"Let's see, authentic Russian engine degreaser," He set out a bottle of St. Petersburg Alimov vodka while Phil fidgeted.

"36 pack of Coca-Cola's inferior cousin," a case of Pepsi came next as Colt grumbled under his breath.

"three punnets of strawberries," Aya licked her lips and stared at them with a hungery gleam in her eyes.

"And one 'Tony Montoya starter kit'." He said while staring at me with a cheeky grin on his face, setting out a sealed box of Havana Cigars, my brown Stetson Fedora, and a new combo weapon that I had designed. It was pretty much a Combine Pulse SMG, meant to be attached to the side of my Beowulf.

The other crates had been opened to show the GST's standard issue Ghost Recon Future Soldier Armor-Plate/Shield Carrier Vests. Some were fitted for women, and some were modified to be used by Aliens.

The last crate was filled with Beowulfs, ammo for them, and a bunch of modifications for them.

Hiram stood up and seemed to realize all the Aliens were staring at the assorted materials with confusion, Chief Williams was just gaping at the stacks of Beowulfs, Alenko was staring at me with an incredulous expression written on his face, and Shepard was staring right at Hiram.

I kept one eye on her, Shepard could sniff out inconsistencies like a bloodhound; and Hiram didn't have the best poker face at times.

Finally she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Major Lee, get your shit off my deck." My team rushed to collect their treasures while I just calmly picked up my stuff. "Lt. Rodriguez, I'll want you to brief me on _why_ we're having this little stop so soon after departure." The Lieutenant visibly deflated and headed off to follow her, while the two men that had accompanied them stepped on board, looking around like a couple of tourists in Hollywood for the first time.

I started to head to my storage locker when Hiram walked up to me; "Before I forget, there's a followup for the message from Ziva."

I blinked, then gave a loud grunt as he tapped me in the ribs, drawing everyone's attention to us; "Call. your. daughter. When she gets upset, it upsets Ziva, and since Ziva usually can't get ahold of you she gets ahold of Kara. Whatever those two are talking about has Kara making some very _domestic_ suggestions, so call June." He ordered, while clearly trying and failing to hold back a grin.

I winced and rubbed my ribs, more annoyed than anything; while everyone just laughed at my expense. At least until I heard the rumbling footsteps of Wrex and Aethyta practically stomping up to me. I felt all the color drain from my face, while Hiram scrambled to get out of the way.

"What's this about you not keeping in contact with your daughter?!" Wrex's voice boomed in the small room. "Do you have any idea how precious a gift that is?"

Normally I would calmly explain about how I was almost always behind enemy lines and how I couldn't exactly call June whenever I wanted. But the words died on my tongue for two reasons; one, I was on a warship and while I couldn't call her willy nilly, I could still contact her. And two… it's very hard to argue with a Krogan Battlemaster.

Hiram in the meantime had decided to beat a hasty retreat back to the _Marvin_; an action I didn't miss or hesitate to call him out on. "Hey! Get back here!" I shouted, managing to keep my voice stern; but even an idiot couldn't miss the panicked undertones.

He waved over his shoulder as he headed down the shipway; the smug bastard, "Sorry Major, But I've got to get ready to get to work." He replied, a shit faced grin on his face.

"You sonofabitch! I swear to God, I'll see you married before me!"

* * *

After the rounds of introductions, Hiram made Shepard have me call June; which I would have done, but since it was a good excuse to slack off while others worked, I decided I may as well do it now.

I walked into the briefing room since I would have some privacy and placed the call.

After a moment, Ziva picked up; She didn't have her suit on, just a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top. She looked sleepy, but the moment she saw it was me her eyes hardened. I realized that with time zone differences, it was probably early morning at Zekiah Mansion.

I gave her a wane smile, "Hi honey-" I started to say, but she gave a soft catlike growl that stopped me dead in my tracks.

Yeah… I was in trouble, in more ways than one.

One of the side effects of a Traveler becoming a different species is that they gain a lot of their traits, and that includes instinctual responses. And that catlike growl was oftentimes how Quarian females displayed displeasure to Bondmates.

Ziva ran a hand through her raven black hair while her eyes began to glow as bright as the noonday sun; she began to drum her three fingered hand on the desk in front of her. Her Grey-Light Purple skin highlighted by the light of her screen. _"August. Benjamin. Lee... " _She drawled, and I cringed; oh yeah… I was in deep trouble. _"You are lucky that I was about to get up anyway… Do you know how upset your daughter is right now?" _She asked rhetorically.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Ziva cut me off; _"No… No you don't you _Bosh'tet_; you're too busy going and galavanting off to go save the Galaxy! I get it, I really do! You have a job to do, and you have to disappear for weeks at a time ; but that doesn't excuse your no contact when you're in port!" _Ziva's voice was increasing to a full blown shout by this point, and I just hung my head in shame.

She took a breath and fixed me a cold glare; _"Now then… I'm going to get June; and you are going to talk to her for as long as possible, I know what you're doing right now, and I know it's going to take a long time to finish the modifications to the _Normandy. _So unless those alarms start blaring, you are sitting there and you are not leaving." _She ordered.

"Yes ma'am…" I stammered.

Her eyes flashed again, before she turned on her heel and walked out of her room to go get June. It was less than a minute, before a Greyish-Purple blur zipped into her room; and a cute little six year old Quarians face was staring back at me.

Her raven black hair was a total mess, and her eyes glowed like the full moon; she wore a cute onesie, and was smiling as she looked at me.

"_Daddy!"_ she squealed; as Ziva, her harsh look gone and replaced with a soft smile and her eyes glow having dimmed to Junes level, sat down in a chair and set June on her lap while hugging her tightly.

"Hi sweetie." I replied, unable to stop the widest smile from overtaking my face; happier than I could ever remember for the longest time. I don't know why I always forgot to call, but that moment made me never want to disconnect the call; and I vowed to call every single day so long as I was on the _Normandy_.

And I made sure I kept that promise.

* * *

Everyone had gathered in the CIC behind the cockpit, and I do mean _all_. The room was cramped, as it was wall to wall personnel. Williams had to actively corral people away from the work stations. Even the group of Quarian refugees that I had helped save from EA's attack were here, gathered around Tali and chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

I was in good spirits; I had managed to squeeze an hour and a half of conversation with June and Ziva before Shepard had called me to the Bridge.

Shepard had even asked if I had gotten enough time, and I told her that it was enough. I also made sure to request that she set aside at least fifteen minutes everyday when we were not in combat or stealthing so I could talk with them.

She had agreed instantly.

As I took in the room, everyone was chattering and looking around excitedly as they waited for the show to get started. After a minute, Shepard threw her Poncho open and fixed Hiram and Lt. Juan with a hard glare "Alright Jawa," she started, "you've crawled all over my ship, swapped out parts and munitions and loaded your software. Time to convince me this was worth it. Pressly, bring it online."

The crew tensed and looked around as if expecting the sound of machinery spinning up.

But this being real life and not the movies, all that happened was a wire-frame image being projected by the hologram. It showed a simple animatic of the Normandy, surrounded by a globe of orange lines.

There was a single repeating ping from halfway through the globe on the starboard side. "What's that?" Shepard asked, pointing at the ping.

Pressly enhanced the area she was pointing at. A series of numbers and an identifier of, 'Anomaly' were displayed, along with a range indicator of '2.281 C'

Lt. Juan nodded and keyed in the _Marvin_. "Frans, point our Delphi at something else." The anomaly shifted rapidly and was soon gone from the sensor. "That's how sensor apertures look to the scanner; it knows it's an ME emission, but it can't classify it."

"Alright, but what about active emitters?" Pressly asked. "Can it differentiate those?"

"Unless there's a glitch in the software, sure. That's one of the things we're here for." Juan keyed his mic again. "_Marvin_, standby to detach." He turned to Shepard. "By your leave ma'am?"

She nodded, and several crew members began tapping their controls. There was a slight shift as the Normandy's gravity control compensated for the loss of _Marvin_'s mass.

"_Marvin away."_ The guy named Frans reported, as the _Marvin _moved away from the _Normandy._

Juan nodded and faced Shepard again and pulled a sealed envelope from his pocket. "We have some maneuvers laid out. This is a list of them and their times. Once you switch to active scan, we can begin running your Delphi through its paces." He explained.

And that we did, for the next four hours. After the first ten minutes of playing hide and seek with the _Marvin_, most of the crew and away teams wandered back to where they were supposed to be.

All that were eventually left were Juan, Hiram and myself, Shepard's Command Cadre, and Tali who was enraptured by the whole process. By the end of the exercise, Shepard no longer looked like she wanted to throw Hiram and Juan out an airlock.

I was honestly kind of bored; I was reminded of one of my old Scoutmasters from my time in boy scouts in my past life. He had been the XO of one of the Los Angeles Attack Subs during the Cold War; and he had told me about some of the exercises he had run through.

This was reminding me very much of what he went through.

"This is a damn impressive system your people have developed." Garrus noted as he leaned back against a bulkhead, jarring me from my thoughts. "This would... no, this _will_ change warfare. How well does this scale?" He and Shepard looked between Juan and Hiram.

As Juan was chatting with Frans about the next stage in the drill, Hiram opted to answer. "I don't know the actual math to calculate core size and effective scanning range, but the unit we installed here is a little over eight cubic meters. The one we lug around on the Marvin is about 250 cubic meters, and we can track point targets out to about four light hours."

Shepard shook her head. "There really won't be a need Dreadnaughts ever again, if the missiles work as advertised." She said, sounding almost hopeful.

I had to admit, this was sounding more and more like submarine warfare again; funny how Naval warfare seemed to cycle. First the small maneuverable ships dominated, as big ships were just big targets that couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.

Then the Big Ships got better, and then they dominated for a good long time. Then came the AirCraft Carriers that could strike far beyond the range of any ship's cannon. And then, once it became obvious you couldn't win with big ships; people switched to submarines, which were mostly immune from aircraft and were nearly undetectable except to fast and maneuverable ships.

And so Naval combat would come full circle; and it seemed we were entering the 'Submarine Phase' of Naval warfare.

"Sure there will." Hiram was saying, as he turned back to the monitor. "You just replace it's guns with frigate sized sensors and _dare_ someone to move without you seeing it, then reconfigure your cruisers into carriers or arsenal ships."

I just smirked lightly and shook my head; it looked like Hiram was already thinking ahead of the curve with how to counter the 'Submarine Phase'.

"Let's confirm the missiles work before we rewrite the book. Lt?" Shepard said, smiling lightly as she looked at Juan.

He was about to speak when Pressly pointed at something. "What's that? It's in the Number 1 Aft Quadrant. It wasn't on the scope a moment ago." There was a ping about eight seconds above and behind us.

Juan looked over the data tags. "Hm. 'Unknown', about 100 meters across and... 50 tonnes? That can't be right." He glanced at Pressly. "Give it a fixed scan."

The hologram zoomed in as the Normandy brought the new sensor's full power to bear. We had a glimpse of a shape just before there was a flash of light and every alarm in the CIC went off.

"Joker, evasive _now! _All hands, this is the Commander; set Condition One!" Shepard moved to the cockpit while everyone else clung to the railing.

The sensor was still set for point observation, so Hiram hit an icon on the Hologram and reset it to active area scan. There was a glimpse of something leaving the detection sphere, and a solid track on something heading towards us; something flagged as 'Radiological Warning'.

Pressly flashed Hiram a look of annoyance, though he did nod in thanks. "Commander, one missile inbound; profile reads as a Fission Warhead equipped Torch Drive. Intercept in T minus five sec-" The sensor feed went white a half second before the whole ship bucked and a new set of alarms went off.

"XO, report!"

Pressly went over to one of the Damage Control monitoring stations. "We were clipped by a Casaba-Howitzer warhead. Barriers took the worst of it, but it still punched through two armor layers above the portside wing root. No hull breach detected."

"Where's the Bogey?" Shepard stalked in, just as the commanders of the various ground teams and specialists rushed in.

Pressly manipulated the sensor controls to sweep the point sensors across the last known trajectory of the unknown. "They rabitted just after launching. They're outside our scanning range now." He looked hopefully at Juan.

The Lieutenant just shook his head. "Our Delphi was out of position. I just ordered Hans and Frans to lie Doggo in the moons of the second gas giant." He tapped some controls on the Hologram projector, and a small sub-holo popped up in the corner. "I also had them point our Delphi at the Mass Relay; if they try to run, we'll know it."

I blinked and looked around as everything that just happened caught up with me. I was a ground pounder, not a Squid. "What the hell just happened?" I demanded as I looked at Hiram, Pressly, and Juan for an answer.

Hiram gave me a sidelong glance with a hint of warning in his eyes. "A conveniently timed attack just as we were prepping for the live fire drills."

"Well they're not drills anymore." Shepard interrupted as she leaned against the projector. "I wanted to know what your new systems would do in combat; looks like we'll get our chance."

My jaw clicked shut as I shared a tense stare with Hiram, while Juan's back went rigid for a moment. This was a little _too_ on the nose for us; it was just too perfect, like a video game cutscene.

Any deities out there must have been laughing at us while watching.

"Alright people," everyone looked back at Shepard, "anyone not directly connected to the new sensors or weapons, the operation of the ship, or contributing ideas on how to help needs to clear the CIC." Everyone stood still for a moment. "That's not a suggestion."

The ground teams filed out, though Tali was still staring at the hologram. "Can we backtrack them?" There was confusion, but also curiosity. Tali looked around hesitantly. Hiram, Juan and myself all looked at her in anticipation. "I mean, I'll... just-"

I was at the door to the CIC when I had heard her start her little brainstorm, and I held up a hand. "You have a thought?" I asked, staring right into her eyes.

Shepard and Pressly were about to send her out, I'm sure, but they saw something and hesitated.

"Well, I know the sensor has limited range, and they've probably left that already, but we know where they _were,_ so I thought..." She said timidly.

Tali honestly looked like she was going to curl up in on herself when Garrus spoke up. "You want to go on a _Spirit Hunt_?"

Shepard looked at him oddly, likely due to the fact that whatever he said hadn't translated well; "What's a spiritual retreat supposed to do?" She asked in confusion.

His mandibles and frills all flared in confusion. "Huh? No, a 'Spirit Hunt' is an old Naval tracking tactic. If you know where and when a target ship was somewhere-"

Pressly's eyes lit up. "You can move to a position ahead of their information wave!" He tapped the controls and pulled up navigational data and time. "Commander?" He looked at Shepard expectantly.

She gave a sharp nod, and he fed the coordinates to Joker. While Pressly was away, she went over to Tali and said something I didn't quite catch that caused the young girl to sag in relief. She gestured over to the exit, and Tali walked up to me; and we walked out of the CIC.

She gave a relieved sigh, and I smiled and patted her on the shoulder; "You did good there kid." I said.

"Really?" She asked, her eyes flaring; and I could imagine the skeptical look on her face mixed with hope.

I shrugged, "Yeah… you did better than me; and i'm technically your immediate CO. I'll admit, I'm not good with all this space stuff; I'm a ground pounder through and through." I said as I ran a hand through my moustache.

Tali nodded, "Thanks… it's expected that we know at least a little bit of everything in the fleet. You never know when you might end up in charge of a ship."

I just laughed, shaking my head at her confusion; "Ah… I'm just thinking about how unprepared I am to deal with being on a naval warship. I see spaceships as something to get to and from my mission; my place is on solid land."

"You sound like Sergeant Reegar." Tali noted, with a hint of amusement.

"We're ground pounders Ms. Zorah," I replied; "We prefer bullets zipping past our heads rather than sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting to know if we're going to get blown up or not."

"_Major Lee. Major Lee. Please Report to the CIC."_

I frowned as I looked at the intercom, and shared a glance with Tali.

"What do you think they want?" She asked, sounding nervous again.

"I don't know… go get one of the Armor Vests that Jawa brought aboard and get it on; and tell everyone else to prepare themselves for potential borders." I ordered.

Tali gulped and dashed off while I jogged back up to the CIC.

"-rking is a very specific Calligram belonging to the _Nizari Isma'ili_." I heard Hiram saying as I walked in. I took one look at what was being displayed, and swore violently when I saw what looked like a Romulan Bird of Prey with Arabic script written on it.

Hiram continued on like he hadn't even heard me. "Specifically, it's associated with the _Asasiyun_; we're being hunted by EA Assassins."

* * *

We spent another four hours tracking the movements of the EA hunter/killer. Whatever we might have called it, most of the crew adopted Wrex's name for it based on the Calligram: _The Varren_.

It had initially jumped towards the system's only rocky planet, but it made one course break to throw off possible pursuit and headed towards the third Super-Jovian; the enormous proto-star had an equally massive ring and satellite network.

I honestly felt like I was in _The Hunt For Red October._

"Well this should be _fun_." Wrex groused as he stared at _The Varren_.

Shiala smirked at the massive Krogan, clearly interpreting his wariness as fear. "What, is the great and mighty Urdnot Wrex afraid of a tiny Human ship?" She asked sarcastically.

If she'd insulted me like that, my blood would have been boiling.

But Wrex didn't even bother looking at her. "Yes, and you should be too." He nodded at the display. "That's not a warrior out there, seeking honor and glory; that's a murder machine. Stealth ships like that are first strike weapons meant to kill, nothing more." He turned one baleful eye towards the startled Commando. "I guarantee that if we chase it into that pyjak nest, we will come out bloody, if we come out at all."

I could tell his words had an effect on Shiala, as she immediately paled slightly and went back to examining the _Varren _more closely to see if there were any weak points.

"Then we don't." Shepard stated firmly as she looked at Juan. "Transmit to your ship, and have them drop off our old magazine at these points." She indicated the 'dark' sides of several of the moons. "Once they're done, have them meet us here, in case we need someone to pick up survivors."

It was left unsaid whose survivors she thought might need picking up. I suppose that was one comfort to being on a spaceship rather than a Submarine. If we went down, at least we had a chance for survival. "We'll remote activate the torpedoes and fire them into the ring in sequence; make it look like _we're_ orbiting the ring. Then, when they try to pounce 'us', we fire from our current One-Light-Minute zenith position."

I think everyone could tell Juan was uncomfortable with involving the _Marvin_ in this operation, but fortunately he recognized the soundness of the plan and didn't argue the point. The fact that Shepard was taking steps to keep the _Marvin_ out of the actual fighting was likely what kept him and Hiram mollified for the time being.

We continued monitoring the planet as the _Marvin_ laid the torpedoes like depth charges. I could tell the Lieutenant was tense, likely thinking about the possibility of losing his ship to random chance. I laid a hand on his shoulder as he sagged in relief once the Marvin joined us.

Pressly looked to Shepard.

At a nod from her, he ordered the weapons officers to activate the 24 torpedoes, one at a time, and fire them into the planet's ring. The warheads activated at preset distances, causing gravity shockwaves that created 100 km bubbles to form and pop. After the seventh torpedo, _The Varren_ made her move, firing a missile at our supposed position.

Pressly barked out. "Target on scope ma'am!"

"Lock on." The hologram shifted as our sensors went to point target mode.

"Aspect change ma'am; she's running for it!"

"Weaps?"

"Locked!"

"Fire."

The Normandy bucked slightly as two MEHVI's were launched. There was a split second where the missiles were just hovering relative to our position, then the flashed out. The clock and acceleration counters both crawling as _the Varren_ wove it's way clear of the network of moons towards the Mass Relay.

The clock reached zero just as she made it past the last moon.

One missile flew wide, but the second struck the starboard pylon. Her kinetic barriers had no appreciable effect as the missile sheared the nacelle clean off. Everyone in the CIC whooped and started patting each other on the back as the enemy tumbled. Shepard looked to be ready to issue orders when the Varren's port drive lit up, and she flashed away towards the safety of the relay network.

* * *

The cleanup and after action was very tense, and very edifying.

But as a bunch of Army grunts with no idea what to do, my team and most of 1-4-1 just sat around waiting with nothing really to do.

Although I did have enough time to plan my revenge on Hiram for leaving me to fend for myself with a Krogan Battlemaster and an Asari Matriarch.

I don't know why Joker had itching powder in his locker; but i wasn't going to ask him. Hopefully he wouldn't notice that one of his spare hats was missing.

I managed to catch him shortly after I had waved off Lt. Juan. "Ah, Hiram! I wanted to catch you before you left and let you know there's no hard feelings. I even got you something!" I know my smile was pure smarm, and that was intentional.

My whole job was built around telling elaborate lies and getting others to believe them; he would be suspicious if I was straight faced.

Hiram smirked, took the hat and shook my hand. "I call bullshit, but I need to get going." he stated as he slipped the hat on; then he turned grim and said, "Shepard noticed us on the CIC with Tali. She suspects something but doesn't know what."

My own smile dropped at that, _Shit…_

I knew this was going to happen at some point; but it was still a problem that needed to be nipped in the bud, and soon. "I'll think of something to say. Also," my grin returned a little, "Ziva said in my last call that she'd sponsored Kalla. She's coming to Earth to attend Xenobiology classes at Johns Hopkins." I turned on my heel and headed deeper into the ship. "I expect they'll have plenty of time to talk, and plan."

I knew Hiram's eye was twitching as I walked away, and as sad as I was that I couldn't see it; I could content myself with knowing he would be getting his just desserts soon.

Sometimes, you just had to take what you could get.

* * *

**A/N: 13,500 words… holy cow.**

**I am really sorry this took so long to get out guys; but i have something to make up for it.**

**First off, the length of this chapter; secondly, there will be two new side stories coming out throughout the week, one written by MP07; and the other written by Ian the Mechanic.**

**And lastly, if you didn't read the message up top i am excited to announce that Ian and I have collaborated to create a new Story. A Half Life-Mass Effect Crossover called Half Life: Entanglement. It's going to be a long fic, and hopefully it'll be good because it semi follows the Half Life Formula of making you think.**

**It must make you think because both of us have been getting headaches trying to figure out the mechanics of certain plot points and abilities.**

**In any case, I hope you guys have enjoyed; stay safe out there in these troubling times.**

**Leave a review and tell me what you think.**

**And I will see ya when i see ya.**


	19. Pick up for a Dr T'Soni?

_**SSV Normandy SR-1, In orbit over Therum; February 28th, 2183 CE/AD, 1145 Hours**_

I sat down in my chair in the Briefing room as Shepard took the podium.

While Shepard and I were at the foreground, everyone else took their seats in what could be best described as an Amphitheatre or a college lecture room. Everyone was armored up, and pumped to get going; but we needed to Iron out how we were going to do things once we got groundside.

Shepard typed a few commands into the podium, and a holographic recreation of the digsite appeared on the floor of the briefing room. It reminded me of Tony Stark's hologram floor from Iron Man 3.

"Alright, we have confirmed the presence of at least three platoons of Batarian Pirates augmented by a platoon of Geth combat platforms." Shepard started, brushing her Poncho as she talked, "One platoon is currently patrolling our drop zone, one is patrolling our intended extraction zone, one is guarding the entrance to the dig site, and the fourth was last seen above the surface before disappearing underground."

Everyone looked at each other, before turning their attention back to Shepard as she said; "Normally I would make the call, but everyone here is a professional so I want to hear your takes on this."

Sergeant Reegar didn't waste any time and said; "I say we split into four groups. One group runs distraction with the mako, the second secures the entrance, the third secures the exit; and the fourth can slip inside and try to secure the good Doctor and any other personnel that managed to survive."

"I agree with the Sergeant," I added, "My team's main speciality is in stealth; we can slip in and extract the good Doctor, and no one would ever know we were there."

Garrus raised his hand, "How do you plan on sneaking inside when the _Normandy _would be seen dropping you off, and Eezo drop packs would be detected." He asked.

"We'll do a HALO jump; we got parachutes from the _Marvin'_s care package." Archer noted.

The aliens looked at each other uncertainly, but Shepard nodded; "Sounds like a good plan, just make sure they don't spot you on your way down."

"We'll be fine Ell Cee; so long as you guys run a good distraction for us. Which begs the question, while my team's sneaking inside and extracting the Doctor; who's securing our exit, who's securing the entrance for the rest of us, and who's running distraction with the Mako?" I asked, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.

"If it's the Geth guarding the entrance; it would be best if my team deals with it." Kal spoke up, Tali, Nina, and Fon all nodding along eagerly. They really wanted to kill some Geth.

Shepard nodded, "Agreed, Major?"

"No objections, though I will admit none of my team are the best with Technology in general; so if we run into some kind of technological barrier we might have one of your team come down and help us Sergeant." I informed him.

"Understood." Was all he said.

"Alright, who wants to run distraction; and who wants to secure extraction?" Shepard asked next.

Aethyta, Shiala, Kirrahe, and Alenko raised their hands; "We'll deal with Extraction ma'am." Alenko said, "The four of us are more geared for Defensive fighting anyway."

"Yes, we can hold the line relatively well." Kirrahe added.

I had to fight back a smile at that statement; "That leaves Williams, Garrus, Wrex, and myself running distraction with the Mako. William's are you certified to drive the Mako." The question from Shepard made me smile.

"No ma'am, just the gun." Williams replied.

"Looks like I'll be driving then." Shepard said. Everyone looked at each other, and nodded; while Shepard grinned "Alright, lets kick some ass!"

* * *

Everyone performed final checks on their equipment; my team and I checked to make sure our parachutes were in perfect working order before our jump. I checked the Hi-Standard Silences that I had grabbed, working the slide and hammer to make sure it was working properly.

Last thing I wanted was for the damned thing to fall apart in my hands.

Archer grabbed a pair of Tomahawks from her locker, which raised a few eyebrows, especially when she hit a button which caused some kind of dull glow in the handles; but everyone shrugged it off when they saw a lack of any reaction from the rest of my team.

Shepard, Reegar, Williams, and Alenko walked over and took in the sight of Archer running a whetstone over the blades before she sheathed them on her back pouches. "I guess she really takes the Native American theme seriously." Shepard noted, giving me a lopsided smirk.

I just chuckled in reply, "Well that's how we get our callsigns Ell Cee; all of them have a touch of irony to them."

"Really? Would you mind explaining the meaning behind them?" Reegar asked, and I noticed Tali perk up slightly; probably eavesdropping to see if there was anything interesting about us she should know.

San had probably told her about the conversation he had heard Shepard and I having last night; and wanted to hear more about 'Pilgrim Lee'.

Well, I was sorry to disappoint her; "Well my name is kind of Obvious, Nomad means homeless traveller, a wanderer, things like that; and If North America had had a king instead of a president, I would be in the line of succession. You can't be more anchored to a place if you tried."

Williams just tilted her head and frowned, "Not really seeing the irony." She pointed out.

I just laughed, "Ah, most of the time they're inside jokes."

"What about the rest of you guys?" Alenko asked, noticeably leaning away from Archer with wide eyes as she grabbed her own Beowulf.

I pointed at Archer, "Hers is kind of obvious; she's a Cherokee national, and loved playing up the stereotypes to make everyone else in the chalk as uncomfortable as possible during training."

I turned to Phil next, "His full name is 'Voronov Konstantine Filippovich'; and none of us could be bothered to remember it, so we just called him Phil. Because it's easier, and it makes him sound like a teddy bear; his girlfriend calls him 'Philly Bear'." I explained, while Phil gave me a glare that could melt through solid steel.

Shepard actually laughed at that one, "Aww… is 'Philly Bear' angry with the Major?" She asked with a well meaning smile.

Phil just looked away and grumbled something under his breath in russian.

"And Colt… well he fired a Colt Python during training and smacked himself in the face with it because of the recoil." I finished as I reached into the supply crate and grabbed several spare mags for the Hi-Standard.

"I still have the picture of it if you want to see; my face was covered in blood and everything." Colt chimed in with his usual chipper attitude; already fiddling with his omnitool.

"Uh… we're fine, thanks." Alenko replied, while Kal and Ash both vigorously shook their heads no.

"You know, I just realized something, we haven't given all y'all your callsigns." Colt noted as he strapped his Beowulf to his chest.

"What do you mean by that?" Asked Shepard, giving us curious looks as she slapped a new ammo block into her Avenger.

"Well, from what we've gathered none of y'all have call signs like us; it's much easier and safer to go by one rather than by your last name or rank." I explained. I looked between the Mako and Shepard, and smirked as I thought of something.

"This an Army thing? Cause we never did that in the N7's, but if I had to pick… how about 'lioness'?" Shepard asked, while everyone else looked at each other.

I couldn't stop the grin working across my face behind my mask and bandanna. "You misunderstand Shep, your chalk gives you your name; I'm thinking 'Uber', what do you guys think?" I said as I looked directly at the Mako.

All the humans in the room immediately understood what I was thinking.

Shepard scowled and said, "No, I think 'Lioness' is good for me."

I just shook my head, "Naw, naw; don't work like that Ell Cee. Yeah I'm liking 'Uber', we'll upgrade you to 'Uber Select' if you do a good job ma'am." I replied.

Williams and Alenko were grinning now; "Yeah skipper, I like it; 'Uber' has a nice ring to it." Williams remarked.

"Uber fits you Ell Cee; the more you complain, the more likely they'll change it to something you hate even more." Alenko added.

"Oh that's wonderful…" Shepard grumbled sarcastically; shooting me a glare while everyone else chuckled.

"_We're coming on the dropzone Major."_ Joker's voice echoed throughout the hanger bay.

"Alright Joker;" I looked at the rest of 1-4-1, while Kingslayer moved to the open ramp. We stood and waited for the light to turn from Red to Green. And once it did, I couldn't resist turning around and shouting; "Don't think you guys are safe by the way; we'll think of some for you while we're down groundside." before I turned and jumped off the ramp.

* * *

My Exo-Suit may have been heavy, but these were top of the line Parachutes; with two backup reserved chutes in case the first one didn't deploy right. The four of us fell for a good three minutes, waiting until the last possible moment to pull our chutes.

The familiar feeling of slowing down from terminal velocity to a safe glide downward in just a few seconds overcame me, and I grunted at the sudden slowdown.

I steered my chute to the drop zone, greasing the landing and quickly cutting the chute away while tossing the bag. Drawing my Beowulf, I searched the area for any potential hostiles; even as the rest of the team landed, flaring their chutes as they hit the ground before cutting the ripcords and throwing the bags onto the ground.

Normally we would have been more diligent about storing or hiding the things, but we were on a strict timetable.

All four of us had taken a Hi-Standard silenced along with our normal gear for stealth. The Beowulf was a great Battle Rifle; but it sucked when it came to stealth ops, although considering the fact that most stealth ops would inevitably end up going loud with how our luck tended to work no one really complained.

We followed a lava flow towards the dig site, using its heat to mask our own and the rippling of our camo-cloaks as we rushed. We arrived at the site to find several squads, a mixture of Battarians and Geth troopers, though thankfully no heavy support units, such as Armatures or Primes. The lack of Advanced units and experienced command was evident when Archer managed to draw off both squads guarding the site entrance with the classic, 'throw a rock and everybody goes to look at it' trick.

I could see in everyone's posture that all of us had the same thought going through our heads: _are they just that complacent, or is this one of Saren's traps?_

Either way, we had a mission to complete. We slipped past the sentries and headed into the tunnels. There were signs of a fighting retreat the entire way, with mass-driver impacts in the walls, blown out light fixtures, and smeared blood. There were no patrols in the halls, but we stuck to the shadows as best we could anyway. The assault teams had moved all the bodies out of the way and stacked them like cordwood just outside the chamber where I could just make out a blue glow and multiple voices.

Archer entered the room first, and I entered second, followed by Colt and lastly Phil.

We stopped behind a stack of crates, and I quickly plugged in the snake camera and peeked around the room. Liara was in the bubble, like in Canon; and there were four squads of Batarians in the area. One was guarding the main entrance to the room, with a LMG emplacement just to make sure no one got through.

One squad was patrolling the room, looting the crates, and checking the dead bodies of the research and security team that had not made it into the bubble or escaped.

The third was guarding the exit tunnel, another LMG setup just in case anyone got any funny ideas to try and flank them.

While the fourth along with the presumed Commander was attempting to get the Prothean device to release Liara; _Good luck_, I scoffed, only the Quarians would be able to get the thing to release her.

I really did not want to use that mining laser, because the idea of causing a volcano to erupt freaked me out somewhat; so that was the last resort.

_Click-Clack._

The throat mic clicked in my ear and I turned my attention to my team.

"_Number?"_ Archer signed in question.

"_Sixteen B's. Sixteen G's."_ I signed back.

"_Doc?"_ Colt asked.

"_Field."_ I answered.

"_Who take who?" _Phil asked, drawing his Hi-Standard in one hand; and his K-Bar in the other.

I took another look through the cable, and watched as the three eyed Batarian Commander smashed his fist against the field in anger and started bellowing at Liara behind the field. I stewed it over for a moment, before deciding on my course of action.

"_Split up. Archer take roamers. Colt take entrance. Phil take exit. I take Commander. Don't leave too _big_ mess. But send message."_ I ordered.

Archer drew her Tomahawks and slid into the darkness with a shimmer as her active camo and her cloak blended seamlessly with the shadows.

Phil cracked his neck and moved along the wall, his K-Bar glinting for the briefest of moments before the invisibility caught up with the movement; and vanishing away from sight.

Colt just grinned behind his Mask, and I knew he was grinning because I could see his eyes crinkle behind the eyeholes of it. He drew his own K-Bar, along with a flashbang and a frag grenade. Once the alerts went out that the compound was under attack; stealth wouldn't matter, though I would rather Colt not alert the whole damned mine that we were here.

"Stealth Mission." I hissed into the mic.

_Click-Clack. Click-Clack._

The two clicks in my ear were the bog standard acknowledgement of my order, but I swore that I could hear the disappointment in his response.

Rolling my eyes as I, like the rest, slipped into the shadows; making sure my cloak and active Camo were still working as I stayed close to the wall. Making no noise, I crouch walked up the stairs and stopped behind the Batarian Commander; listening as he tried to convince Liara to leave her cell, as if she had any choice in the matter.

"-all go so much easier if you would simply drop the barrier and we could leave here like civilized beings." He was saying, which prompted another roll of my eyes; even as his three minions worked at the controls, their frustrated growls making them sound more like animals than sentients.

None of the Batarians noticed me, but Liara might have if the widening of her eyes was any indication.

I froze, while Liara blinked and squinted; before seemingly deciding that she must have imagined it, and refocused her defiant, if somewhat defeated stare back on the Batarian Commander.

"I'd be more inclined to believe you if you would take one step to your left." She practically spat in reply; looking like she wanted to cry, scream, and punch the Batarian all at the same time.

"Oh? And why would I do that?" He leaned forward slightly, looking like he was eying the Asari's body up; much to my disgust.

"Because then you wouldn't be standing in a puddle of my _friend's blood!"_ She punctuated her statement with a surge of Biotic power.

The prison responded by absorbing her biotics and converting it into a flash of light.

I watched in surprise, thanking my lucky stars as my goggles automatically polarized at the light. A normal Biotic might have created a dull glow, while a more powerful Biotic could've created a bright flash. Liara apparently was neither of these, and the pulse caused the Batarian to reel backward and cover his eyes; all three being blinded by it.

The Geth actually seemed to be as unnerved as synthetics could get as they all stepped backward; warbling and trumpeting in distress from the display of Biotic power.

But the batarian Commander recovered quickly and snarled at Liara. "Grah! Stupid wench! If I wasn't under orders to-"

All the Batarians stepped back as a series of very distant explosions shook the room; even as I got into the kill position.

"Topside! Report!" The Commander snapped, as he drew his pistol and flicked his eye's up towards the main entrance where Colt's group seemed to be getting nervous. I saw in my HUD Colt's indicator hovering right behind them, his knife poised at the base of the neck of one of the Batarians, his pistol pointed at the head of another; the Batarian squad none the wiser.

"_We're under attack! Need reinforcements now!" _A voice screamed back over their comms, while I smiled at Tali's hacking doing their jobs and allowing us to hear everything they were saying.

The Geth units all warbled in their Machine language, and as one all sixteen Geth units turned and strode out of the cave; leaving the sixteen Batarians to defend the area.

To my surprise, the Commander didn't lose his temper over the Geth acting on their own initiative; instead he looked relieved that they were leaving. "Topside you got the Geth heading for you, hold out until then; out." The Commander took a breath as I creeped up to him.

"Thank the pillars those damned things left, creeped me out I'll tell you." He turned back to Liara with a smile. "Now, where were we."

I double checked that the commanders squad had no weapons besides their sidearms and their tools; and just as the Commander opened his mouth to speak, I stabbed my K-Bar into his spinal blood vessel.

For those that don't know, I stabbed him in the base of his neck where the spine meets the skull.

Liara yelped as I yanked the blade out and quickly shot the Batarian closest to me, using my knife arm to balance my shooting arm. The Batarian staggered as three rounds tore into his chest, and a fourth smacked into his head; the four eyed Alien dropped like a ton of bricks.

Unfortunately the last two were smarter and immediately activated their K-Barriers, making my Hi-Standard pretty much useless. But they weren't that much smarter, meaning that they charged me with wrenches while I emptied my pistol into the closest one.

The closer one's barriers flashed and failed as the last round left the chamber, and staggered as I pistol whipped him in the throat; the second tried to grapple with me, which I promptly shut down by kicking him in the stomach hard enough to send him flying into the barrier.

Holstering my pistol, I drew my revolver; which certainly wasn't quiet, but it was certainly more manageable in these kinds of engagements compared to my Beowulf. The Batarian I'd staggered with my pistol came at me again; I ducked under his wild swing and shot him in the stomach with a loud _Crack!_

The Batarian dropped his wrench and dropped to the ground, holding his stomach; even as I heard the whistling noise of the second Batarian taking a swing at me.

Ducking and rolling, I whipped around and fired again; nailing the bastard right in between his four eyes.

He fell as the Batarian on the ground seemed to remember that he had a pistol, and drew it to try and shoot me. I Immediately stomped down on his arm to put a stop to that kind of thinking; the Batarian yowling in pain as I crushed his forearm.

Deciding the time for stealth was past, I didn't waste time using my knife to try and kill him; it would be a waste of time and energy to struggle with the idiot, so I just pointed and shot him in the head with my revolver.

Turning my attention outward, I got a good look as Archer decapitated one Batarian with her left Tomahawk; and sliced one's gun in half with her other. The Batarian she'd decapitated fell to the ground, while the other tried to run; Archer just threw her tomahawk, which stuck into the Batarians head.

Archer rushed forward, sliding across the ground as a Third Batarian tried to shoot her; only to get a Tomahawk in the gut. Archer yanked the axe in the second batarians head out as she ran; ducking behind a stack of crates as the fourth Batarian tried to shoot her.

I just holstered my revolver, drew my Beowulf, and shot the guy in the head.

Archer didn't even stop to thank me as she sprinted over to the Batarian with her second axe in his gut, yanking the Tomahawk out in a blur of silver and red while the Batarian screamed. His screams were cut short as the blur made a full 360 degree revolution through the air from his gut, all the way through his head.

I could hear the screaming from the entrance, and most notably a lack of gunshots; which meant that Colt was fine, and probably having fun with explosives.

I swept my gun towards Phil, making sure to keep strict trigger and muzzle discipline so I wasn't pointing my gun at him; and saw that he was fine.

Two of the Batarians lay on the ground; one with a massive exit wound in his face, while the other's neck was broken.

Phil kicked one Batarian into the wall, the Aliens arm clearly dislocated; while Phil held the other in a chokehold, both men grunting loudly as Phil snapped the Batarians neck with a loud _Crack!_

The Batarian Phil had kicked into the wall began reaching for some kind of switch near him with his good arm.

Archer put a stop to that, throwing her Tomahawk at the Batarian; slicing his forearm clean off while the rest of the axehead buried itself into the wall.

I smirked at Archer as the Batarian screamed, before putting the poor Pirate out of his misery with a .50 Cal. shot to the head; _"Those 'always land head first' modifiers really work, don't they?"_ I heard Colt ask over the radio.

"_Yes." _Was all Archer said in reply as she walked over and yanked the Tomahawk out of the rock wall; wiping the blood off the two axe heads on the dead Batarians' clothes as she did so.

Cracking my neck and flipping down the hood of my cloak, I keyed my mic; "Alright, Colt take the main entrance; Phil guard the exit, Archer up here and try to get this field down." I switched frequencies, "Uber this is Nomad, Batarian's guarding the Doctor have been dealt with; she seems to be stuck in this… biotic field. We'll try and get her out, but we may need the Sergeant or 'Pilgrim' to deal with this." I smiled at the callsign we had come up with for Tali.

Though my smile dropped when the reply came, _"Nomad, this is Pilgrim; we're retreating to your position. We couldn't stay up there, Uber says that we'll have to hold the line in your area and free the Doctor while she makes her way to us."_

I cursed under my breath at Tali's report, but knew there wasn't anything that could be done except hunkering down and waiting out the storm, "Understood Pilgrim, get down here fast; out."

I turned to Liara, who seemed to be cowering away from me in fear; even as Archer walked past me and started working at the Consol. I gave her a look, and she seemed to sense my silent question. "I can deactivate it Boss, but not quickly; It'll be much faster once Pilgrim gets down here."

"Just do what you can." I ordered, before turning my attention to Liara; who seemed even more frightened of Archer, for good reason considering the brutal manner with which she had disposed of the Batarians.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment, before Liara said something that honestly shocked me; "You… you're the 'Skulls' that the Matriarchs have been talking about… aren't you?"

I stared at her, while Archer flinched slightly, before she resumed her work.

As for me, I could think of only one thing; _well… shit..._

* * *

It had been a last ditch decision, activating a random Prothean device of which she only had the loosest understanding. But she'd really had no other choice; everyone else was dead. There was no reason for what had transpired; not even the most fanatical of Hanar Enkindler Cultists would attack a dig site and murder everyone, would they?

Now she was trapped in what seemed to be some manner of Biotic prison. Any doubts about whether it was better if the device hadn't worked were swept aside when the scarred, three-eyed Batarian had executed her chief of security and her research assistant. She was faintly relieved that the beastly slaver had brought synthetics with him, along with more of his kin; she dreaded to think what the poor maiden would have endured, and what she herself would have been forced to helplessly watch were it not for their dispassionate presence.

That didn't change her predicament; she was trapped in a Biotic Prothean prison, and this _murderer_ would not shut up!

"Come on now Doctor, do you honestly believe we can't get you out of there?" His voice reverberating oddly against the barrier as he gave a mockery of a charming smile. "This will all go so much easier if you would simply drop the barrier and we could leave here like civilized beings."

She shivered at his insistence. He had known who she was when this attack began, which meant he knew who her mother was and _still_ felt confident that he could get away with this attack. She wanted to cry, to scream, to spaghettify him and then give up. She saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she glanced over all she saw were shadows. There would be no help for her, so she resolved to comport herself as her mother's daughter and remind this scum _why _Asari should be respected.

"I'd be more inclined to believe you if you would take one step to your left."

"Oh? And why would I do that?" He leaned forward slightly.

"Because then you wouldn't be standing in a puddle of my _friend's blood!"_ She punctuated her statement with a surge of Biotic power.

The prison responded by absorbing her biotics and converting it into a flash of light. A normal Biotic might create a dull glow, while a more powerful Biotic could create a bright flash. The daughter of Benezia T'Soni was neither of these, and the pulse caused her tormentor to reel and cover his eyes, while the synthetics blared and trumpeted in distress.

"Grah! Stupid wench! If I wasn't under orders to-"

The barrier isolated her from shocks, but she still heard the multiple muffled explosions. The commander sneered in frustration and half turned. "Topside! Report!"

There was a garbled response which motivated the synthetics to turn as one and leave. "Topside you got the Geth heading for you, hold out until then; out."

Three-eyes gave a satisfied sigh, as if he had been relieved of some irksome burden. "Thank the pillars those damned things left, creeped me out I'll tell you." He turned back to Liara with a truly unsettling smile. "Now, where were we."

Whatever had been going through his mind was the second to last thing, followed shortly by a blade which stabbed out through his open mouth. Liara yelped as a shadow shimmered behind the spasming Batarian. She could faintly see a bloody rictus grin and soulless black eyes as Death itself seemed to materialize from nothing. A grey arm extended from behind the corpse and pointed at one of the technicians trying to open her prison. His chest and head silently erupted in viscerra.

This finally alerted the other Batarians to the danger, though to no avail; three more grinning apparitions appeared, and the four of them soon began weaving between one another. She had thought that perhaps, just perhaps, the Enkindler Cultists were right and the wrathful spirits of the Protheans had arisen to curse the desecrators; then the first apparition drew a silver pistol and the chamber reverberated in a thunderous gunshot.

She now knew these were not spirits of the Protheans, though she had a terrible premonition about who they might be. In the span of seconds, these four Skull-faced killers dispatched sixteen Batarians who had managed to destroy her own security detail, and were largely doing so with simple knives, axes, and even bare hands.

Once the carnage stopped, she got a better look at her rescuers, if that was their intent. They seemed to be talking amongst themselves, and perhaps with more of their ilk in other parts of the site. It would certainly make sense, given the suddenness of the attack, and the need to deploy the Synthetics to try and stem the tide.

The stories making their way through the halls of power among the Asari were terrifying enough; and if it weren't for Matriarch Tevos' distress at the very idea of these 'Skull-Faced humans', she might have simply chalked them up to the sort of wild tales people made up during long duration space missions. Even her own mother was wary of rumors of this elusive group that seemed to simply appear, kill and destroy, then vanish again without a trace.

The first apparition focused on her as the axe wielder began working the console. She endured it's terrifying gaze for a moment before resigning herself to her new fate.

"You… you're the 'Skulls' that the Matriarchs have been talking about… aren't you?"

* * *

"We're _Det kazuat_ out here!" Fon fired a short burst at a Batarian trying to make their way towards a fallen rocket launcher.

Sgt. Reegar threw a disruptor grenade at a new group of Geth advancing on their position. "Zorah; any luck?"

Tali growled in irritation. "Yes, all bad! This _Bosh'tet's _gear is so good I'm barely keeping him out of _our_ systems; I haven't had the chance to try hacking theirs."

Kal grimaced and looked around. They'd managed to draw out some of the security forces, but now they were stuck between two squads of Geth and a squad and a half of Batarians. Quarian's excelled at maneuver warfare, but there was no room for that here; all they could do was hold this position so the infiltration team would have a clear route out.

"_Sergeant this is...Uber. Nomad is requesting you or Pilgrim for technical support."_

Kal choked slightly at that. "Uber, Sergeant; we're _barely_ holding the mine entrance as it is! How copy?"

There was a short delay that Kal's team filled with sporadic fire and swearing.

"_Sergeant, Uber; fall back to Nomad and provide support. ETA on Short-Bus is one mike; we'll keep the back door open. Out."_

Kal wasn't certain what a 'Short-Bus' was, but he wasn't in the habit of questioning orders in the middle of a firefight. "Tali, standby to spam their system. Nina, prep frag charges. Fon, cover left."

Kal and Fon laid down suppressing fire without concern for overheating while Nina and Tali readied their parts. He received a double-chirp over his comm, letting him know his team was set and ready to move.

"Now! Go, go, go!"

Kal and Fon broke off and headed to the cave entrance while Nina and Tali assumed rear guard. Tali's 'spam' attack on the opponent's systems blinded their targeting sensors for a few seconds, as the team withdrew. The Geth fell back to consult and coordinate, while most of the Batarians cursed and fiddled with their equipment. One Batarian leapt from cover and charged-

-**BLAM**-

Right into Tali's field of fire. His barriers took the worst of the blast, though what made it through picked him up and dumped him back behind cover.

The team made quick work down the tunnels, ignoring the sound of explosions from the entrance. They finally arrived at a large room. Tali and Nina were still bringing up the rear, so the only warning the Pilgrim had was when she nearly slipped on something covering the strange tiled floor.

"Watch your step little lady," Colt commented from the other side of the room, "we haven't had a chance to mop."

It took a few moments for her to accept what she was seeing; for a moment, she wondered why the snow was gone from the Presidium. Then she saw a pyjack duck out of a burrow, grab a severed Batarian arm and drag it back to it's nest. She remembered that she wasn't on the Citadel, though that somehow made the sheer brutality of what she was seeing feel worse.

Tali faintly heard Sgt. Reegar tell Nina and Fon to stay behind. She flinched when he gently took her elbow. "Come on Pilgrim, we have work to do."

They moved deeper into the room where a large prothean device was quietly humming; Tali could see an Asari was suspended inside. She thought for a moment that this was one of the _weird _ devices that read or put thoughts into your mind, because the look on the Asari's face was a perfect mirror for Tali's own horror.

They stopped next to a control console where Archer and Nomad stood.

Tali hesitated to come any closer, since both created a surreal image; blood splattered on their camo-cloaks appeared to simply hover, while their traditional 'Skull' masks leered out of nothing. She was reminded of stories of the _Kelek'miin_ from her childhood; of restless beasts that lurked in the shadowy places, devouring the souls of those who wandered where they weren't supposed to go.

Nomad had flipped his hood down and glanced over towards Tali and Kal.

He turned back to the trapped Asari and seemed to nod to himself before walking over to two Quarians. The Asari herself seemed surprised at their appearance, but kept her attention towards the two humans in front of her.

"Sarge, you guys all good?" Nomad asked, his voice muffled somewhat by his mask.

Tali gulped and looked back across the rest of the room; the sixteen dead Batarians wiped out by four humans, in CQC no less, with no injuries or deaths on their side. The Eight Batarians closer to the entrance being the ones that drew most of her horror, four having been killed by decapitation; while the other four had their limbs twisted and broken.

These four humans were some of the nicest, and un-military kinds of people when they were off duty; and to see them turn to silent, professional, stone-cold killers was unnerving.

"Pilgrim?!" Kal's voice jostled her out of her thoughts, and she looked back to see Nomad and the Sergeant staring at her.

Nomad looked between them, before saying; "Sergeant, help Archer with the hacking; I want to talk with Pilgrim before she joins you."

Kal gave him an uncertain look from behind his visor, Tali was sure, but a glance from the human was more than convincing for the Quarian Marine.

He turned to the Asari and gave a curt nod; "We'll have you out in a second Doctor."

"Please do… I'm rather sick of being stuck in this pose." the Asari replied, trying to sound more relieved than frightened.

The human turned his attention back to Tali, "Walk with me." And he turned and walked down the ramp towards the caves.

Tali had to fight the urge to shake her head and rush back to Sgt. Reegar's side, but he was standing next to Archer and a batarian corpse that looked as if a Krogan had been gnawing on it.

She squared her shoulders. She was Tali'Zorah, daughter of Admiral Rael'Zorah. She was a Pilgrim, not a child hiding from story-vid monsters. She followed after Lee... _Nomad_, and tried to ignore how unsettling it was to see his head bobbing along over a blood-spattered ripple of nothing.

He seemed to sense her discomfort and deactivated the cloak, leaving him wholly visible again.

"You alright Pilgrim?" He asked, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Her voice squeaked involuntarily. "This is only the second blood-bath I've been front and center for in the last two weeks," her head dipped down, "or my life." She stopped in the hallway and hugged herself. "I'm supposed to be finding a gift to prove my ability to contribute to my people's well being, not fighting interstellar terrorists or storming pirate bases. What am I doing here?!" Her voxmitter dulled the sound of her voice, though not the stress brought on by the events she had endured.

But the human seemed to pick up on it anyway, and said; "Protecting others? Advancing your peoples status from vagrants to respected peoples? It can be anything Ms. Zorah, just so long as it gives you the motivation to keep going." He absently drew his giant pistol and loaded a few rounds into it, "And your skills and fighting abilities, while they could use some work, rival that of many Alliance Marines."

Tali wasn't sure how to react to that praise. On one hand, Lee was someone she felt, if not kinship to, at least a certain familiarity with; being a Pilgrim himself, he was familiar with the self-sacrifice that societies needed. As such, she valued his thoughts and his praise. But he was also a soldier; not merely an enlisted troop, but one of the elite of the Systems Alliance military. He was, ultimately, a killer, and it was disconcerting to be praised in her skill at arms, when her own interest was in self defense and enriching her people.

She felt very, _very_ confused. And intimidated, not the least by August's signature weapon.

She eyed the handgun with slight trepidation. "I... thank you. I have been working with Sergeant Reegar in my down time." She looked absently down the tunnel. "I want to contribute for my people, not kill for them. Except for the _Geth_!" She pursed her lips and blew, her voxmitter issuing a discordant **blaaat**_._

Lee just nodded in agreement, much to her surprise. "In a perfect universe, there would be no need for people like me; if this were a perfect universe, I would be back home at my estate spending as much time as possible with my girl and my daughter." He mused, closing the chamber and holstering his pistol; before pulling out a second one, ejecting its spent ammo block.

Tali huffed. "In a perfect universe, my people would still be living on Rannoch, not cast to the stars, fighting for our survival." She glanced at the still skull-mask clad human. "You said your 'girl' and your daughter; I thought 'girl' was one of the _many_ human words for 'daughter'."

Lee glanced at Tali, and the Quarian had to suppress a shudder at the grim specter that was his mask; "I meant my 'girlfriend'." He stated, though there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

Tali ran the word through her suits onboard galactic thesaurus. She was very frustrated at how _not_ up to date the system was; though to be fair, humans and their hundreds of languages had only been a part of the wider galaxy for 26 years. She was lucky to get one of their common translation programs on the off chance she'd needed to secure passage on a human ship.

"Is that another word for 'Bondmate'?"

August just chuckled, "You could say that I guess; what? Surprised that I have a life outside of being a killer?"

She flinched at his phrasing. _Oh Ancestors, please don't let me have said that out loud_. "Not at all! Many of our own Marines have Bondmates; though they usually wait for that part of their life when they aren't as likely to," she shivered as the scene from the Prothean chamber returned full force, "to die."

She fully expected the human to get angry or something like that, as many Quarians had reported similar encounters with military personnel of many species. Instead he looked away, and she could tell from his body language that he was contemplating what she said; _"Don't I know it… _It wasn't exactly planned…" The first part of his sentence didn't translate, though it sounded like the language those terrorist nutjobs spoke. The second part though, definitely caused even more confusion on her part.

"What do you-" She started to ask, when gunshots began echoing from the entrance chamber.

In a flash, the Major had spun around and reactivated his _Sehni _like cloak and drew up his rifle. "Report!" He barked.

"_We got incoming Boss!"_ The one called Colt shouted back.

Nomad glanced at Tali and seemed to nod to himself. "Alright, playtimes over Pilgrim; get to working on freeing the Doctor."

* * *

"Geth!" Williams screamed, firing her gun even as Jane ran the Combat Platform over with the Mako.

"Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh SHIT! LAVA!" Garrus yowled, gripping his seat tight rough that Jane was surprised that he hadn't torn off the arm rests.

Wrex surprisingly hadn't said a word since the drop, though his eyes seemed glazed and hollow; Jane figured she should stop and check up on him at some point, but now probably wasn't the best time.

_Whump!_

The Mako jumped slightly as Jane ran over another Geth Platform; but the Commander paid it no mind. She jerked the wheel left away from the lava river; much to the rest of the cabin's sigh of relief, which annoyed her to no end.

It wasn't like she was blind and had no clue what she was doing.

"You guys are horrible backseat drivers, you know that? I swear, if I didn't know better I'd assume you guys thought I was blind and doing donuts in a field." She complained, even as Williams sprayed down two more squads of Geth.

"LAVA!" Garrus screamed again.

Shepard just huffed in annoyance and activated the Mako's boosters and jumped over the stream of Lava; everyone except her cringing as the Mako bounced on the ground. Reaching over and hitting a button on her consol, she said; "Nomad this is... Uber, we're about two mikes out; SITREP." She winced at the unfortunate name, but she was getting used to it.

"_Holding steady here Uber; Bat's and Geth are trying to advance but we've been keeping them back. Our Exit's been blocked off from the inside by more Geth, Alenko's team is holding the entrance; but don't have the numbers to push inside and drive them out. We've freed the doctor as well, she's fine by the way." _The Major replied, sounding quite calm even as the sound of his odd chemical weapons fire made its way to her ear through their Comms.

She wondered about Lee and his troops sometimes; she didn't buy into any of the outlandish conspiracy stories about their founding, but so far _everyone_ she'd met from this GST was more than a little odd. She absently steered towards a Geth trooper.

_**-Thump-**_

"Spirits! Jahenne, stop swerving; you don't get extra points for hitting them!" Garrus was almost constantly buzzing in agitation on missions, but today he seemed particularly wound up.

Nevermind the fact that he always seemed to freak out whenever she was behind the wheel.

"I can see that Garrus, Jesus you don't need to be such a backseat driver; I'm not driving with my eyes shut." She grumbled.

"Maybe it would be better if you were skipper!" Williams shouted, swinging the gun around to try and shoot another squad of Geth Troopers.

"You mean like this?" Both Garrus and Ashley squawked in distress until they saw her eyes were still open. Wrex gave a nondescript gurgle from his crash seat. "Eyes sharp people, we're here." Any semblance of informality was gone as Shepard came to a stop behind a small lavashelf, giving the vehicle good hull-down coverage while allowing Ashley clear lines of fire.

Wrex stumbled out and gasped for breath; "I don't care what Nomad says." He snapped, already walking towards the entrances of the caves while Jane, Ash, and Garrus piled out of the Mako, "You are not getting that upgrade to 'uber select'."

* * *

Shiala was bored.

For the past five years, rumors had swept through the highest halls of power on Thesia and beyond about a rogue group of 'Skull-Faced' mercenaries. The Matriarchs were all but apoplectic whenever any mention was made of the group and a mysterious series of raids against one of Councilor Tevos' closest political allies on Sur'kesh. The fact that the Miralano Clan had since all but died out in a 'tragic series of industrial accidents' spoke volumes about whatever the group had seized. There were even whispers of some manner of back-room deals between the elusive fighting force and the Holy Order of Justicars; to what extent no one could say, least of all the Justicars themselves.

Her own Matriarch Bennezia T'Soni had laid a veritable political funerary pyre to have her posted to this, 'Task Force 141', with strict orders to _"watch everyone and report everything"_.

Now here she was, fighting alongside no less than one of the commanding officers of the 'Skulls', and she was bored. It boggled her mind; these people were supposed to be the terror of the spaceways! Batarian Hegemons were supposed to weep and recant their wicked ways at the mere mention of one of the GST, to say nothing about what happens if one shows up on your world; yet here she was, dutifully guarding an extraction point. It was just like any other military Op she'd ever served on, and the banality of it was driving her to distraction.

If it weren't for how strangely precinct they all seemed, she would simply chalk it up to the sort of hype all military special operations units spread about themselves. She'd heard them mention events and places that were so obscure, species so rare and isolated that there was no reasonable way they could have known about them; to say nothing about how effortlessly they navigated the differing social dynamics of the various species on the ship. Major Lee's team was more likely to be confused by their own human crewmates than they were by the intricacies of Salarian Clan structure.

At least she could try and pump the lone human of the group for some information; or even Matriarch Aethyta, since rumor had it that she had been dealing with the 'skulls' long before anyone had even known they had existed.

"No sign of any Geth, got a few Batarian stragglers though; but they aren't shooting." The Human Lieutenant Alenko said.

"Let them go if they're running; no sense in wasting the ammo blocks on them." Aethyta replied.

"Hm… will likely die from dehydration within a week; no real settlements for a long while." Kirrahe added.

Shiala decided to take the opportunity to shift the conversation while they were alone and had free time. Observing the Major's team was great and all, but she wanted the others' opinions first; "The 'Skulls' would shoot them I think." Shiala stated, starting the shift towards the Major's team.

An Asari would see the change in subject and her ploy almost instantly; and she had no doubts Aethyta did, Kirrahe too since the STG Captain would have dealt with these kinds of situations. But Alenko was too much of a soldier, not enough of a spy; and either he didn't see her shift in subjects, or he did see it and didn't care.

As it stood, the other three operators looked at each other; while Shiala kept her gaze out towards the three Batarians trekking away.

After a moment, Alenko cleared his throat; "I don't think they'd give their position away so casually without good cause. SOC isn't N-7; as I understand their mandate, they focus more on infiltration and asset seizure than assault and objective seizure."

Aethyta snorted, "You say that, as Archer packed a pair of Axe's for an infiltration Op; and used them in quite the bloody manner if what 'Pilgrim' and the Sergeant had to say is true." She remarked, sweeping her rifle across the wastes.

"Still display remarkable professionalism in the field; and remarkable unprofessionalism off the field." Kirrahe added.

Shiala smiled lightly, thanking both of her fellow operators; as they understood what she wanted, "Very unconventional Tech; this Hiram Grant destroyed Cerberus back about a decade ago, what's to say he didn't take their tech and some of their operators and repurposed them for his own uses." She mused.

Alenko seemed to balk slightly, "What, you're saying the Major and his team are ex-Cerberus?"

"Perhaps, would explain their experimental technology being somewhat ahead of ours." Kirrahe noted.

"What do you think, Staff Lieutenant?" Aethyta asked, a little too bluntly for Shiala's tastes; but then Aethyta was not a normal Matriarch.

Alenko's posture went rigid for a split second before he openly scoffed. "You didn't grow up with Cerberus propaganda cropping up everywhere, or live in fear of one of their cells torching a whole community for 'polluting humanity' simply because a shop owner sold something to a visiting alien." There was a harshness in his demeanor that was entirely new to the operators around him.

"General Grant did the galaxy a favor when he destroyed Cerberus, and if he _did_ leave any of them alive, he wouldn't have accepted them under his command any more than they would have accepted his authority." He snapped angrily, turning his attention back outward. "That would be like you just repatriating one of those, 'Daughters of Selene' I hear Tevos is wound up about back into the Huntresses." He didn't hear or see Aethyta and Shiala nearly choke on their tongues at the mention of 'Tevos' Folly'.

Shiala paused to regain her composure, and reluctantly accepted his explanation; and Aethyta decided to try and soothe the human, "We meant no offense Lieutenant, but you can imagine how… unnerving it is to find out that a group of humans have been operating in Council space without us knowing about it for the past few years suddenly show up out of nowhere like this." She explained. "Especially considering the fact that many… 'troublesome' people previously considered untouchable have been turning up dead as of late. Many think these 'skulls' are literal spirits of vengeance."

Kaiden shifted uncomfortably. "I'll be honest, they sort of sprung out of the blue. And you're not the first people to suggest they're a Cerberus Penal Legion, though it's more likely they were formed when _EA_ first started to form and we're only now seeing them because the fight's spilling out."

He chuckled softly. "I've heard some other pretty out there theories; that they're clones of soldiers from our pre-Mass Effect period and that's why they prefer anachronistic weapons. Someone else had suggested they're from a lost colony like the Mansfield Expedition and developed independently and that's why they have such weird tech. There's even one really out there rumor that they're time travelers from the future, and that's why they know so much." He scoffed and scoped in on a runner. "It's more likely they're just a Black Project some politician tripped over, and the Army had to come clean or there'd be hell to pay."

Shila just gave a non committed hum and looked back out over the vast rock fields and mountains; as enlightening as this conversation was, there were still things to do.

Unfortunately, that meant that she was bored again. _Oh Well...hey, there's the Mako! Maybe things will finally get interesting!_

* * *

_Crack!_

I didn't even bother watching as the Batarians head exploded; quickly shifting focus to a nearby Geth platform.

_Crack!_

The Platform jerked its head back and slumped over deactivated.

"Uber, we kind of need that back up now; we're running low on ammo here." I snapped angrily, ducking instinctively as another slug zipped over my head.

"_We're almost there Nomad!" _Shepard replied.

"To hell with this. Colt, use your Grenade launcher!" I shouted.

He grinned at me and quickly loaded in a fragmentation grenade, and aimed it down the tunnel; "Grenade out!" He shouted.

_Thump!_

_CRACK!_

The distinctive ripping sound of the impact grenade exploding reached our ears; along with the screams of several Batarians that had not been killed by the detonation. I could hear more gunshots from farther down the hall, and I grinned; "Keep shooting, reinforcements are here!" I shouted, switching my Beowulf to burst fire and spraying the hall.

Unsurprisingly, the Batarians and Geth fought to the end; and my group had to stop shooting and take cover to avoid friendly fire.

Even as the last platform fell, Shepard was already rushing towards our position; rifle at the ready.

"Friendly, Blue! Blue!" I shouted, holding a hand up as I pointed my gun upwards.

"We see ya." Shepard replied, raising her gun up as well. "Everyone okay?"

"I'm good, the rest of you?" I replied, looking out over my team and Kal's; along with Dr. T'Soni.

"We're all okay Nomad." Kal said.

"Fuckin' A Uber; I guess you get that upgrade to 'Uber Select' now." I said, clapping her on the back.

Shepard grumbled something under her breath; while Ash, Wrex, and Garrus all groaned and rapidly shook their heads, "I'm leaving her a one star rating." Ash stated, leaning against the wall of the cave.

Liara blinked and screwed up her face in confusion; "I don't understand."

I just waved my hand, "Ah you'll get it eventually; how are things topside, and are we free to extract?"

Jane cracked her neck and nodded, "We've mostly cleared it, and Alenko's team reports that they're clear." She hit a few commands on her Omnitool, "I've sent the Mako back to the extraction teams location; but we should probably leave before enemy reinforcements arrive."

I nodded, "Agreed, let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

**A/N: Link to the Discord is now: "Pv2bv88" Check my profile for an updated version if this does not work.**

**Sorry this took so long guys; but I got good news in that fan and fellow writer Ian the Mechanic is now Co-Writing this story, and will be uploading this story on Archive of Our Own while I will continue uploading to **

**Now then, the ME-HL crossover Half Life: Entanglement will be going up at the same time as this chapter; I wanted to start uploading with the last one, but Ian convinced me to hold off until we were almost done with Act 1. Two Chapters will be going up, and then one more every seven days until the end of Act 1. **

**At which point there will be a few interludes uploaded whenever we get around to them; and we'll start with Act 2 once we get a decent stockpile of chapters.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed.**

**Would love a TV Tropes page, if not for this fic then for HL: Entanglement.**

**Leave a review, tell **_**Us**_** what you guys think.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	20. Recovery

Liara stumbled slightly as she sat down in the chair in the amphitheatre-like room.

She was just so tired, and exhausted, and scared. She was somewhat mollified by the presence of Matron Shiala, as well as a Matriarch onboard; though if it was the Matriarch she thought then it was a cold comfort. Shialla may answer to her mother, but Aethyta was notorious for ignoring any authority but her own.

The entrance to the chamber opened and a small parade of individuals came in. First was Matron Shiala. She was no longer in her Huntress attire, but rather in an unflattering cloth jumpsuit festooned with belts and pockets. Lots of pockets. Shiala walked up to Liara's chair and spun to face the remainder of the people. They consisted of three humans and one Quarian. Of the humans, one was female with the intensity of a battle hardened Matron, the second was a male Biotic, and finally the leader of the 'Skulls' who had first found her in the cavern. The Quarian was the leader of those who had finally released her from the Prothean containment device.

The female sat and all the others except Shialla followed suit. She then activated a VI on the desk. "Good evening Ms. T'Soni. My name is Lieutenant Commander Jahenne Shepard of the Systems Alliance N-7 Command. With me are Major August Lee, SAASOC, Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, SA Naval Command, and Sergeant Kal'Reegar vas Neema, Migrant Fleet Marine Corps." Each of the others nodded as they were mentioned. "We are here under the auspices of the Citadel Council's Task Force 141 to determine the circumstances of your recent predicament.

"Specialist Shiala has impressed upon me the precedent for protectorates remaining with Asari VIPs during interviews and debriefs. While there is no such precedent within the Systems Alliance, this _is_ a multi-governmental project, and it is not my intention to compromise cross species relations. We will be recording these proceedings for the historical record, and you may request a copy once this interview is concluded. Do you understand?"

Liara nodded almost by instinct, though in truth she had only just remembered the names of the people in front of her, and that they were all military. "Yes. May I ask questions in turn?"

Lt. Alenko crossed his hands on the table. "Only as they pertain to clarifying any questions we have. You may certainly sate your curiosity once these proceedings are concluded, however the intelligence you possess will be time sensitive and we have to ask that you remain on task until we are finished. Before we begin, do you require anything? Food, drink or hygiene issues?"

Liara shook her head. "Just sleep, though I imagine that will also have to wait."

Jahenne nodded, and brought up a list of information on the VI's interface. "For the record, can you please tell us why you were on Therum?"

Liara took a calming breath. "I was asked to come and conduct a site survey on behalf of the Systems Alliance's Ministry of Cultural Affairs, per Citadel Accords clause 5 § 2 pertaining to any and all Prothean finds of a unique nature. The Governor of Nova Yekaterinburg was concerned that several off world mining concerns were exploiting possible Third Epoch Prothean artifacts, but didn't want to risk losing local tax revenues by antagonizing the corporations."

The group nodded, and the Lieutenant continued. "How were you contacted, who was your contact for this project, and how did you maintain that contact?"

"I was initially directed by the Dean of Archeology at the First Republic University contact a," she hesitated as she tried to remember the name, "Tamara Alievna Yevloyeva, who is a deputy minister of Cultural Affairs on Therum." She saw August's brow furrow as he pulled up a number of details. "She assigned a liaison to my team; a Mr. Abid Avdaktovich Sagopshinski, though I don't think he liked my team being there."

Lee finished looking up some data, then focused on her. "We found no humans at the dig site. Do you know where Mr. Avdaktovich is?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yes; he received a call from Minister Yevloyeva saying there was a family emergency and..." Her enthusiasm waned. "He received the call two days ago, and departed roughly five hours before the Batarians arrived. I remember because he always seemed so impatient about how long we were taking." She furrowed her brows. "When we broke through into the containment chamber, he immediately notified the Capitol. The Deputy Minister called him back the next day with the news about his family."

She looked at the four infront of her; Mr. Reegar seemed nonplussed, though Mr. Alenko and Ms. Shepard both seemed worried. It was Mr. Lee who had her full attention, as he was openly scowling at what he was reading. She caught his eye for a moment. "He sold us out, didn't he?"

Lee glanced over at Shepard, who nodded to him.

He looked back at Liara with an almost sympathetic air. "Nova Yekaterinburg Cosmodrome reported exit Visas assigned to 'Stas and Gagarina Kizhe', while there has been an official inquiry opened by the Governor's office into the sudden disappearance of Deputy Minister Yevloyeva."

"I'm sorry but, who are Stas and Gagarina?" Liara started as she and Alenko asked at the same time.

Lee gave a tired smile. "They're both fictional characters from Russian literature. Kizhe means 'Nobody'. Somebody thought they were being very clever."

Kal snorted. "We'll see. Your GST can be tasked with tracking them down. For now we'll focus on Therum. Dr. T'Soni, have you had any direct or indirect contact with SPECTER Saren Arterius?"

She leaned back and frowned. "Not that I know of. My mother may be important, but I'm not privy to every-"

"Three years ago." Everyone looked at Shiala. "Saren reached out to Matriarch Benezia for Matronage in a long term project. It happened to coincide with Liara's graduation, so she sent me to negotiate. He was, off; even for a SPECTER. He seemed particularly interested in Liara's studies into the collapse of the Prothean civilization."

Shiala and Liara both noticed an almost puzzled look cross Lee's face. It hardened into concern for a moment as he glanced at the others in the room. He schooled his features as much as he could and gestured for Shiala to continue.

The Huntress locked eyes with Lee. "I found his lines of questioning to be suspect at best. I informed him that I couldn't agree to anything on Benezia's behalf, but I would forward his interest. When I returned to my Matriarch and informed her of everything, including my misgivings. She has since been surreptitiously cutting ties with any programs they may have a shared interest in."

Lee returned her stare. "One more question, if I may; what is the significance of the site on Therum?"

Despite the familiarity of the subject, Liara was alarmed by the 'Skull-Faced' human's intensity. "I believe it was a scientific research outpost related to the Last Great War. There is some academic debate as to the nature of that conflict, as the Prothean records during that Epoch are unusually sparse. The prevailing theories are a second Metacon War, or a galaxy-wide slave revolt; though neither of these explain some of the technological oddities in late-period Prothean technologies."

Her misgivings were waning as she dove deeper into her passion. "The device you found me inside for instance; it is meant to be controlled from multiple points, any one of which has the ability to override input from the master console in the actual containment chamber." She steepled her fingers and looked into the middle distance in thought. "It's as if they were trying to imprison something, but couldn't trust whomever was closest to it."

Neither Liara, Alenko, Kal or Shepard saw the flash of confused alarm pass across Lee's features, though Shiala did. She refrained from showing her own concern at his behavior as the Commander continued.

"Well, Doctor T'Soni I think that concludes our interview. Lt. Pressly has assigned you quarters in one of the Officer's billet. Matron Shiala has been reassigned there as well." She stood, followed by everyone else. "Get yourself cleaned up, send a message to your mother, then get some rest. We'll likely be calling on your expertise for a little while; at least until we can reach a safe port of call to transport you back to Thesia. Dismissed."

She and the gathered soldiers departed, though both Shiala and Liara noticed how distracted Mr. Lee was. _Curious and curiouser._

* * *

The Quarian mission-team were all sitting in the alcove they had functionally claimed for themselves. The non-combatants were all on duty at the moment, so they were alone for a brief amount of time.

Kal was reviewing their combined after-action reports and compiling them into two sets: one for the 141 reports, and one to be forwarded back to the Fleet. Nina and Fon were playing some kind of digital fantasy game popular with the human crew. Tali was nursing a nutrient paste tube while playing the events on Therum over in her mind.

She couldn't figure these 'Ghosts' out.

On one side, they certainly lived up to their name; she'd finally managed to get a more up-to-date human language database uploaded, and the definition of 'Ghost' was strikingly similar to _Kelek'miin. _The team themselves were equally terrifying, both in their ruthlessness and efficiency in combat.

On the other side, they seemed almost gentle when dealing with herself, Nina and Fon. They were never condescending, but in all of her short dealings with Major Lee she always felt a kind of melancholy; as if he were mourning alongside her and her people. Kal they treated as a respected equal, which was just as unusual.

They all perked up when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and saw the rest of the Quarians approaching their alcove; all holding tubes of nutrient paste. _It must be their lunch break,_ Tali mused.

She heard a voice talking, and blinked when she noticed it was coming from San's omnitool. _"-Trotsky had faced off against Truman, but died of a heart attack a mere month after Eisenhower had been sworn in. Eisenhower would then face Malenkov for less than a year, and then Khrushchev for the rest of his presidency. Khrushchev would then go on to face Kennedy, and then Lyndon Johnson after Kennedy's assassination; but for most of Johnson's presidency, his Opponent would be Leonid Brezhnev, a faceless bureaucrat who deposed Khrushchev in a palace coup."_

"What are you listening to San?" Tali asked, smiling behind her mask as Fyodor rushed up and hugged her. She hugged him back, and he scampered back to Lia's side; as everyone sat down and got comfortable.

San in the meantime had paused the audiobook, for that's what it had to be; and grabbed a tube of nutrient paste.

"It's a history file Pilgrim Lee suggested. Human history is so," he waved the tube around as he tried to find the right word, "fractious. They _still_ have more than a hundred politically autonomous regions on their homeworld, and this just deals with two of them."

Tali leaned forward, now interested. If the Major had suggested it, then it was guaranteed to at least be interesting somewhat.

Fon seemed to share her thoughts, and glanced over from his game; "Well, go ahead and play it."

San nodded and hit the play button on his omnitool, and the human narrators voice started up again._"Brezhnev would then face Nixon, then Ford, then Carter; Ronald Reagan would start his eight years in the Presidency still facing Brezhnev, who's _Eighteen _years in power surpassed even Trotsky's._

"_But when Brezhnev died in 1982 only two years into Reagan's presidency, Reagan found himself facing off against Yuri Andropov for a little more than a year; before Andropov died under mysterious circumstances, many believing that the KGB had him assassinated._

"_And then he would face a bedridden, hospital bound Konstantin Chernenko for a mere thirteen months."_

"_Then came Mikhail Gorbachev, a communist true believer like all his predecessors; but one who had no choice but to loosen the fear, suspicion, and corruption that had anchored the Soviet Union even as the United States roared into the information age._

"_But Reagan would not be President for the collapse of the Soviet Union; that final milestone would be marked by President George Bush Senior."_

"_Kheelah!_" Nina's eyes flashed while San paused the recording. "The Batarians don't go through leadership that fast! How did they maintain continuity?"

Lia glanced at San as she continued eating her nutrient paste; "It sounds even bloodier than the Batarians Government if both sides are going through this many leaders in only four decades."

Kal finally paused his report work. "Well, they seem to have gotten over that bloody epoch; Phil has mentioned he is from the region of this 'Soviet Union', and he doesn't seem any more antagonistic towards Lee then you'd see in inter-ship rivalries."

Tali looked over at Kal and nodded in agreement; "They both even seem like great friends in all honesty." She and Nina giggled quietly, "_'Philly Bear'_ that's so sweet."

San just shrugged at the woman's antics and hit play again.

"_The Four decades of the Cold War would contain _Seven_ of the Eight leaders of the Soviet Union; Trotsky, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev. Only Vladimir Lenin would miss the Cold War._

"_The United States would have _Nine_ different Presidents grapple with this Nuclear Stalemate and Nightmare; Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush._

"_Clearly, with a total of _Sixteen _different leaders, each with their own agendas; surely, at some point during this potential Atomic Annihilation, two leaders of these two superpowers could have found a way to end the Cold War had it not been based on 'unfounded suspicions, beliefs, and military Paranoia'."_

Tali gestured for San to pause it again, setting aside her tube of nutrient paste; she frowned, deep in thought.

"I can hear the 'air quotes' humans are so fond of with that last sentence." Nina remarked.

Fon shook his head. "What was the rest of their world doing while these two postured like Bull Krogan; taking bets?"

Jaali'Nemas, one of the other refugees shrugged; "They said 'superpowers'; so it likely means the other nations took sides with one side or the other. Like during the 'Brothers War' between the 'Losul Clans; and the 'Zorah Monarchies."

Tali shifted uncomfortably at the mention of her heritage, but thankfully no one said anything about it.

As it was, Kal decided to chip in his thoughts; "The man said they were nuclear armed, so it's likely no one wanted to oppose these two nations for fear of being nuked."

Nina stood up and planted her fists on her hips. "That just makes them sound even _more_ Krogan than before."

San hit the play button to continue the file; his eyes were dimmed, and he was clearly deep in thought.

"_That it did not, is representative of how the two Nuclear Superpowers saw the Cold War._

"_George Kennan had put his finger on this irreconcilable difference in his 'Long Telegram', written before the Cold War had even begun. And it seems that from the Soviets Berlin Blockade of 1948, to the fall of the Soviet Union in the final days of 1991; _No_, American President seemed to truly understand what was going on, until Ronald Reagan._

"_Because when everything was said and done, the truth was that the Capitalistic United States could live in and tolerate a world that contained the Soviet Union; but the Communist Soviet Union could not survive in a world led by the United States."_

"_This fundamental difference and much else could best be seen at the Berlin Wall._

"_It was a wall not to keep the Enemy out, but to keep your own people _In._ When your ideology is so inferior to your opponents, that you have to build walls around and shoot your own people to prevent them from fleeing en-mass to the _enemy_ camp; well then your days are numbered, at least so long as that enemy camp with all its temptations continues to exist."_

Tali huffed. "Annnnnd, we're back to the Batarian model. They're so weird; their history is like the entire galaxy squashed onto one planet. It's a wonder they survived long enough to make it to their Relay."

"_Leon Trotsky, Leader of the Soviet Union and the man who set off the Cold War; would send over 100,000 people to their deaths, and that does not count the people sent to the Gulags. _

"_Just one of these Gulags in what would later become known as the 'Gulag Archipelago', Kolyma, would have a death count of somewhere between 250,000 people to over One Million; but no one knows for sure, because unlike the Nazi Concentration camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka, there are no pictures that survived Kolyma and all the other Gulags._

"_Soviet Spy Chief Lavrentiy Beria raped and murdered scores of underaged girls, and was the architect behind many of the purges in the Soviet Union and was responsible for the Soviets gaining the Nuke._

"_By comparison; Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States, once threw a golf club at an aide._

"_American Spy Chief Allen Dulles once had a consensual affair with Queen Frederika of Greece. If you cannot see the differences between these people; and the societies that produced and elevated them, then there is something, _seriously, _wrong with you."_

The recording stopped, but no one said a word for a long moment.

"That's…" Tali seemed unable to speak for a long moment.

"There's a reason why Communism is so reviled amongst humanity." A new voice said.

All the Quarians jumped and turned to see Major Lee leaning against the bulkhead, a contemplative expression on his face as he sipped a drink from a cup in his hands.

"Pilgrim Lee!" San shut his Omni off and stood uncertainly. "We were just, uh..."

"Listening to the Audio series I recommended?" He asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow; "What do you guys think?"

Kal chuckled at the nervous glances the others were casting around. "That your people are no less fractions and divisive than any other space faring race, just doing it in a shorter timeframe than everyone else."

Lee chuckled as well, "I would think more fractious, considering the number of wars that my people have had over our history. Some over petty reasons, and some…" He gestured at San, "For not so petty reasons."

San sighed in relief, then jerked slightly as an alarm chirped from his Omnitool. "Looks like lunch break is over." He and the others began gathering up their waste when he paused. "If the _Amuricans_ were the good-guys in this 'Cold War', why did you change leaders so much?"

Lee actually laughed, "San, the Soviets would only change leaders when the last one died or the next one deposed the previous one. Khrushchev did that with Malenkov, and Brezhnev did the same to Khrushchev. In the United States, the American people would actually _Elect_ their Leaders. The President, the two houses of Congress, Provincial Governors, etc; while the Soviets held all the power in one group of people, the American's dispersed that power to the ordinary citizen.

"The Soviets held the idea that the State and a select group of people knew what was best for you, and they would make the decisions for you. The Americans held the idea that the individual knew what was best for themselves; and that the Government only gets in the way." He explained patiently.

The gathered Quarians looked back and forth at each other. Tali peered at Lee. "So your people _voluntarily _changed leaders that much in the middle of a crisis?"

"Ms. Zorah, my people held an Election in the middle of a _Civil War_; with one candidate vowing to continue the war and free the slaves of the rebels, and the other vowing to end the war and allow the slave holding rebels to leave and form their own country." He explained, taking another swig of his drink.

There were several _blaats_ from the gathered people as Tali shook her head. "You really are a crazy bunch of _Bosh'tets_, you know that right?"

He just shook his head, "Ms. Zorah, we're all a little crazy." He said, walking away.

* * *

Phil was reading his book, _The Gulag Archipelago_, while Colt sat next to him chattering about something bane; Phil wasn't sure, nor did he really care, he was only half listening.

"-I'm thinking 'Alamo' for Williams, maybe 'bug' for Garrus." Colt was saying.

"Hm…" Phil grunted.

"You know, we _can_ hear you." Ash grumbled from her work bench, glancing at the Ghosts with a wary eye.

"I know, I want you too." Colt said with a grin.

Garrus worked at something jammed in a panel seam on the Mako with his talons. "You know, if you'd put half as much effort into helping out as you do in inventing new and creative ways to insult your Cadre, we'd all be done with our duties by now." There was a pop and _tink_, and Garrus bent down to examine the fragment. "Bah; my color acuity is crap in this light. Here," he passed the bit of metal off, "is this grey or brown?"

Phil lowered his book and glanced at the piece of Geth platform in curiosity before returning his attention to the page he was on. "Grey." He was never one to say ten words when one would do, and his thick accent made it so that people assumed he was stupid; and thus would underestimate him.

Ash nodded. "Standard Trooper then." She shook her head at the growing pile of fragments as Garrus moved to a new spot and started prying again. "At this rate, we'll be able build a complete Geth Platform out of the scrap you're digging out."

"You can say that again, guess the Skipper ain't getting that upgrade to 'Uber Select'." Colt agreed, "Still trying to come up with one for you, Garrus; Can you think of any names Phil?" Colt asked, turning to the big Russian; who didn't even glance up from his book.

"Stick." Was all he said, turning the page and continued reading.

Garrus chuffed while Williams glanced at the Ghost's. "Why are you guys so…" She struggled to find the word?

"Casual?" Colt supplied.

"Yes! Even the Major tends to not take things seriously outside of combat; why?!" She demanded.

"Simple, in a high intensity unit like this you can burn out very fast; that's why unless we're training or in combat, we tend to be very lax when it comes to how we conduct ourselves." He explained, never losing his almost trademark smirk.

Garrus gave an unflattering buzz with his mandibles. "There's lax, and then there's you. I mean, that delivery-boy what-is-name, Pedro? He sassed the Commander and _punched_ a superior officer! Any other unit in the galaxy and that stunt would get you bounced out of the service like stale bread!"

Ashley's lips pursed at the reminder of that extremely unprofessional display, as well as her own encounter with who she was now certain was the GST back on Eden Prime.

Colt just laughed, "Trust me when I say that the Major deserved it; and it wasn't a punch, just a quick 'love tap'. I'm pretty sure the Sergeant is more scared of Ms. Ziva than he is of you guys, us, or any superior officers. For good reason too, since she can kill you with over a dozen different diseases and never leave a trace it was her."

Garrus shivered at the description. "Sounds like a union blessed by the Titans. It seems like all the human women in the galaxy are varying degrees of psycho. I should know!"

Ashley openly growled at that. "Care to repeat that, _Sergeant_? Maybe I should bring the Commander back down here so you can share your opinion of women with her!"

"If I'm going to wax an 'Ode to all things Shepard', we'll need to stop somewhere to pick up some flowers and sweets first." The latest bit of Geth popped out. "Funny, I don't remember her hitting any rocket troops." He absently tossed the fragment onto the pile. "That fierceness is one of the things that drew me to her. It's the other half of your species I wonder about."

Phil turned another page, "What do you mean Comrade?" He asked, giving the two pause as it was rare to hear the big Russian speak more than a few words in a sentence.

Colt on the other hand just smiled, "Wow big man, more than three words in a sentence; Did you break into your Vodka stores? Cause you only talk that much when you're drunk?"

Phil just rolled his eyes and kept reading.

"Is it even possible for a guy like him to get drunk?" Ashley wondered, looking at the giant Russian.

"Oh yeah, there was that time we were on leave; and we were staying in this condo during the winter. They had a hot tub outside, and for some reason he thought it would be a good idea to get inside it and drink a bottle of vodka." Colt said with a grin, while Phil gave him a dirty look.

Garrus pushed and turned to the others. "You see, that's the sort of thing I don't get. Shepard, Williams here, and this 'Ziva' woman back on Earth; you're all these terribly stoic, almost Turian females. You guys on the other talon," he gestured towards Colt and Phil, "all seem to act like a bunch of buffoons. How does your species manage to propagate if all your females are on the verge of murdering you in your sleep?"

Colt just laughed, and while he kept that smile his eyes had gone from friendly to calculating. "Well you see Garrus," Here, he dropped his voice ; forcing the two to lean closer to hear him. "You notice it's just us Ghosts that act unprofessional, Joker excepted of course."

They all looked up, expecting to hear said pilot take offense to his comment; but when no response was forthcoming Colt continued, "It's a strategy you see, if you were to meet me on the street, what would you think of me?"

Ashley snorted. "As little as possible."

"Exactly." Colt agreed, "You would pay as little attention to me as possible; and if you did see me, you would dismiss me as a threat. One mission, the four of us had to sneak onto a planet and leave no trail back to the Alliance. Phil here snuck into the cargo hold of the transport. Archer dressed up as a travelling… woman of the night that had been hired by the ship's captain; though the guy didn't dare try anything. Nomad simply bought his way onto first class using funds he had covertly stolen from a gang boss; acting as a 'businessman' inbound for the planet. And I just bought a third class ticket under a different name, got piss drunk and passed out in the passenger hold. Now tell me, why did each of us take each strategy?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Both operators knew he was teaching them an important lesson and struggled to come up with an answer.

Garrus buzzed a couple of times. "So you wouldn't be associated with each other as a group when you arrived I suppose. I've seen undercover ops like that once or twice."

"Well that much is obvious; what I mean is, _Why_ did each of us take our respective strategies? Why did Archer pretend to be a hired prostitute?" He asked.

Ashley leaned back against the Mako and crossed her arms over her chest. "Because it's the last thing anyone would expect of her."

Colt smiled while Phil turned another page, "Correct, and the Captain was known to hire prostitutes during trips; so her presence didn't raise any eyebrows." He gestured to Phil, "Now why did he hide in the Cargo hold?"

Garrus was starting to wear thin on the 'lesson'. "Because it was the only part of one of your dinky transports where he could stand up straight?"

"Ohhh, swing and a miss; no, he was hiding with our gear. And since he's one of the biggest bastards around; security would be less than thrilled at trying to arrest him. And he also had about ten thousand credits on him to bribe the guys to go away, and since he looks like a gangster they would assume he was runner for one of the crime lords; and since they didn't want to have their families killed, they would take the money and look the other way. Nomad?"

Ash tried to think; "It's pretty well known that he almost hates his family's status back on earth, so the same as Archer I suppose."

"Correct again, and again people wouldn't look twice at him because he looks harmless. And _moi_? Well it's quite simple, no one wants to get near the passed out drunk dude on a transport. Tell me Sergeant, how often have you and your fellow officers argued over who deals with the drunks? And tell me, do you guys see a running theme here?" He asked.

"There's never any argument about that." Garrus waved absently. "That's what Rookies are for."

Ashley rolled her eyes. "You always appear as the opposite of what your target expects. So, what; that Sgt. from the Marvin is really the epitome of professionalism, but needs to hide it behind a facade of gross insubordination? You bunch I can sort of get; Force Recon Marines can get rowdy in their down time, but the rest of your organization too?"

"Exactly, even our lowest supply officer expects to find themselves in combat or infiltration in times of short hands or emergencies; although it probably doesn't help that most of our unit is made up of 'bunny ears lawyers'." Colt replied.

Ash seemed to immediately understand what he was referring to, but Garrus didn't. He held a talon up and Ashley took pity on his confusion. "They're all so good at what they do, that the organization puts up with their antics."

Garrus flared his mandibles then shook his head. "I don't get it, but you humans are all crazy anyway so I'll just chalk it up to that." He turned back to prying Geth bits out of the front of the Mako.

* * *

I stayed seated at the table closest to the wall as I signed off from my call to Ziva and June.

My talk with them and the Quarians in engineering hadn't done anything to soothe my mind as it raced through the possibilities. Why would the Protheans build an indoctrination holding facility? It made some sense, but the Reapers likely would have put a stop to that sort of thinking real quick.

Which begged the question, where in the hell were they?

Where were the Reapers? They weren't subtly trying to induce changes in policy to make the species of the galaxy more divided and make them weaker. They weren't triggering proxy wars, unless you counted the Imam and the Triple Alliance; but the Imam had to be a traveller, and thus would know to avoid such traps.

I took another sip of my tea, which helped calm my nerves somewhat.

_Clack!_ I blinked in surprise as a plate of a Steak and Chicken Fajita MRE suddenly plopped down in front of me; and I looked up to see Aya glaring at me with crossed arms, while Staff Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Fon'Ress stood behind her.

Alenko and Fon looked like they wanted to be anywhere but the Mess at the moment; but Aya was giving me a stern look, and I knew what she wanted.

I signed and rubbed my eyes, "You don't have to worry about me Sergeant Kingfisher, I'm fine."

"Bullshit sir, I know you; you ate a hard boiled egg for breakfast and drank some tea before the mission. You skipped lunch, and now here I find you trying to skip dinner; are you trying to become a living skeleton sir? Because you already look like one, quite frankly." Aya replied coldly.

Alenko and Fon both shifted uncomfortably, "Is it common for subordinates to talk back to officers like this?" I heard Fon whisper to Kaiden.

"Only if they're good friends, and the Officer needs a kick in the rear to get them moving." Kaiden whispered back.

I had to resist the urge to smirk because I knew that it would only piss Aya off even more; "Well… all human militaries worth their salt agree on the one thing, Officers may run the Army; but it's the NCO's that makes the Army run." I said, not breaking eye contact with Aya as I reluctantly put down my tea and started making myself a Fajita.

Fon flinched while Kaiden gulped; Aya just rolled her eyes and sat down across from me.

I gestured to the seats next to me, "Take a seat gents, I would greatly appreciate the company." I said, making sure to enunciate my Maryland-Virginia drawl.

Alenko and Fon just looked at each other and shrugged, "Very well sir, may as well." Alenko relented, Fon sitting next to Aya while Alenko sat next to me.

I rolled up my fajita and began eating, grimacing in disgust; "Urg… makes me wish I was in Israel or Rome, food there's much better than this crap." I grumbled.

"Oh Man the fuck up," both Kaiden and Fon flinched at Aya's outburst, "at least it isnt Chicken Cacciatori."

I smirked, "Still remember Siberia I see; I'm so glad that Garth got that whole affair on film." I chuckled, remembering how everyone in the Chalk had been laughing up a storm to the point Garth and I had to break everyone up for fear of the trainers finding our base camp.

That seemed to cow her as she immediately turned red and crossed her arms, muttering to herself in Arabic as she did so.

I turned to Aleko and Fon, and seeing their confusion I explained; "See for GST E&E training, they drop our chalk in the middle of Siberia with instructions to survive for a month while evading the instructors and hampering 'supply lines' and the like. Well Aya here got one of the MRE's we had 'liberated' from the trainers and was so hungry that she forgot to cook it. It was… messy, to say the least."

Fon shook his head. "At least that's one thing I never have to worry about." He pulled a nutrient paste tube out of a pocket and hooked it up to his suit. "Go team 'Crap-Immune-System'." he deadpanned as he drained the tube.

I smiled lightly, Oh how he had no clue that Ziva had managed to fix it; and the Alliance was going to be pushing forward an Official Defense Treaty with the Quarians in exchange for this fix, if everything regarding 1-4-1 went well that is.

As it was I just shrugged, "Ah well, I had worse foods on my Pilgrimage; owning a restaurant's spoiled me a little in that regard." I admitted, taking another sip of team; and another bite of my fajita.

Kaiden seemed mildly curious, though Fon's head almost snapped up at the word 'Pilgrimage'. I had to resist the urge to smile as Fon tried to casually lean forward and change the conversation. I may have been a soldier first, but I was a Case Officer second; I had long since learned how to pump people for information, and most importantly how to listen.

The fact that the Quarians called me 'Pilgrim Lee' just as much as Major told me that they were quite interested in what I had gone through. _San… When will you realize that private conversations are just that?_ I mused.

I just kept sipping my tea while Fon seemed to gather up the courage to ask, Kaiden seemingly lost in thought; while Aya was clearly, to me at least, trying not to roll her eyes at how amateurish the Quarian Marine was being.

"_Va'Sera,"_ Fon finally managed to find his voice, "I hope it isn't... inappropriate, but would you be willing to talk about your Pilgrimage? Mine was my enlistment and training in the Fleet Marines, but everyone's is slightly different." He just managed to pull up short of the nervous rambling Quarians tended to fall into.

I just smiled and sipped my tea, "Humans tend to not go Pilgrimages, and those that do are like me; and do so in the religious sense. I'm Western Roman Catholic, and shortly after I received my Officers Commision I was granted a few months of leave. So I went on a religious Pilgrimage to Holy sights across Earth."

I smiled in nostalgia as I remembered the days I was on it; "You donate a Certain amount of money to the Church, and leave with the clothes on your back and the money in your pocket. I Went to St. Ignatius Chapel Point, the oldest Catholic Church in North America; St. Mary's Basilica, though I had grown up around it, it was… nice to see it from the side of a traveller.

"Then I traveled to Poland, where I went to the hometown of St. John Paul the Great and Auschwitz…" My smile faded as I remembered travelling through there, and shook my head. "I don't believe in the supernatural. Whenever someone says something is haunted I always think they're full of crap; but Auschwitz…" I shuddered. "It was like I could hear the spirits of the hundreds of thousands of dead whispering in my ear, crying for mercy, help; and above all, _never again_."

Kaiden just looked down at the table while Fon's eyes flashed in confusion. "What did this _Owch-witch_ have to do with your Pilgrimage if it is such a terrible place?"

"Six Million Jewish people died in the Holocaust, a Genocide of those deemed undesirable by the German National Socialists; or Nazi's as everyone calls them. But what no one talks about, are the Gypsies, Disabled, Homosexuals, and the Catholic Majority Polish. Poland, which had the highest percentage of Jews and Catholics in Eastern Europe at the time; Nineteen Percent of Poland's population was exterminated during Nazi occupation. I went there to remember both the Jews who were the main targets, and the Catholics who were exterminated trying to help them."

Shaking my head I moved on, "Then I went to the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica; and from there to Constantinople… or Istanbul to non-religious folk. And then to Bethlaham, Galilee, and finally Jerusalem." My eyes unfocused as I thought about the place.

"You can feel the age of the place; the ruins that they have uncovered, some of it dates back to before the Pyramids. Some of those ruins date back to when human civilization started; It's humbling… to know that next to those old ruins, you are nothing more than a speck in time."

I leaned back in my chair, having finished my fajita; no longer hungry.

I reached forward and finished off my tea, while Aya looked pale; and Kaiden was keeping his gaze locked to the table. Fon just stared at me as I finished off my drink and stood; "I know what you're thinking Fon, 'these Germans must be evil; and must have been exterminated in kind'."

The Quarian flinched and opened his mouth to speak, and I just raised a hand; "In fact, the Germans themselves were among the first to be sent to places like Auschwitz, and Treblinka, and Sobibor. Even a terrible conflict as World War 2 was; even that was not black and white. Many Germans went along with it because they either had no knowledge of it, or they were simply too afraid to stand up and say it was wrong."

I turned and started to walk away, but not before saying over my shoulder; "Sometimes Fon, the most courageous thing you can do is to stand up; and speak the truth." And then I walked away, just wanting to go to sleep early for once.

I walked, and tried not to think of the ghostly spirits whispering in my mind; _Never Again_.

* * *

Fon slowly made his way back to the alcove where the Quarians had bivouacked. "Is Fyodor Asleep?" he asked, somewhat in a daze; his eye-glow having dimmed to almost nothing.

He had looked up this _Holo-cost_; and Fon had never believed that _any _race, even the Batarians, were capable of such cruelty. Yet that same race had risen up against that injustice, fought against it and won.

It was very confusing to say the least.

Lia and the others looked at him in confusion, and Fon noted that Jaali, San, and Col weren't there; meaning that they were probably on shift at the moment. "Yes… Fon, what's wrong?" Lia asked slowly, as the others gathered around him in concern.

He sat heavily against a bulkhead. "I had a talk with _Va'Sera_ Lee about his Pilgrimage," the entire group perked up, "and more about his people's history."

Tali tilted her head at him, while Kal crossed his arms, clearly frowning behind his mask, "What? Did he blow you off or something?" Tali asked curiously.

Fon sighed, "I almost wish he had." He admitted.

"Why?" Nina asked, kneeling next to him in concern.

He looked at her, pain and conflict clear even through his protective mask. "Were we wrong?" Everyone paused, either unsure of his meaning or unwilling to acknowledge it. "You remember the book San was playing, about the _Union_ and the _Muricans?_ Well there was another war in the middle of all that…"

He described camps where millions died; worked to death, starved to death, tortured to death, or just executed because they were different or wouldn't allow those atrocities to go unchallenged.

"They were nearly wiped out because someone said they were different, or inferior."

"Like us." Tali hung her head.

"Like the Geth." All their heads came up at that. Tali nearly shivered in rage as she stared accusingly at Fon, but he pressed on. "We created them. They became aware by accident but were our responsibility, and we tried to wipe them out; because they were different, because we were scared."

Tali finally broke. "They were dangerous! How many millions of _us_ were slaughtered as we were driven from our home-"

"After we started executing an entire sapient race for the unforgivable crime of being created _by_ us." Fon never raised his voice.

Lia didn't leave Fon's side, though Nina stood and moved to the other side of the room. "It had to be done," she didn't look at Fon as she spoke. "Citadel law forbids the creation of AI."

"_Intentional_ creation." Everyone looked over at Kal, whose chin was dipped into his chest. "We never violated their damned law, but they treated us as if we had, then violated their own laws and treaties when they refused us aid." He kicked off from the wall and headed towards the hatch. "We've received nothing from the Citadel but hardship, so _pier'dolić_ their laws! We did nothing wrong except blindly obeying them."

He stormed out with no clear destination in mind, leaving the others to their own thoughts.

* * *

Jane had to resist the urge to pull out her pistol and shoot the holotank.

As it was, she mustered a salute to the Councilors and signed off; before plopping down in the nearest chair. _Fuck… fuck-fuck-fuck…_

It didn't accomplish anything, but damn it it made her feel good doing it. Saren, Balak, and the Geth she could deal with; having read everything there was to know about them. The Geth were a mystery as always, except for their normal bloodthirsty 'kill all organics' attitude; but Balak and Saren were clear cut cases of Megalomaniacs being given too much power and running away with it.

It was the Imam that really drew her concern.

Particularly, his 'Wolves'; many of them had been N7 candidates, a few had even been in her class for God's sake.

_Muhandis…_ She scowled as she fiddled with her omnitool and brought up the profile on him again. Muhandis, in her eyes, was a monster that never should have been created; and one who's creation could have easily been avoided.

He was born to the Saudi Royal family, and had grown up disillusioned with his parents; and left Saudi Arabia to pursue a Western Education.

He had gone to Innsbruck, receiving a degree in Mechanical Engineering; then Cambridge to learn the English Language and Literature, noted by his professors to be particularly interested in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago'; and 'The Road to Serfdom' by Friedrich Hayek.

Then he'd gone to America where he'd studied American History, The Federalist Papers, the writings of Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S Grant; and many other American Presidents.

He met an American Woman, and the two had fallen in love and gotten married rather quickly; his wife giving birth to a son soon afterwards. After their son's birth, they had made the decision to go to a new Colony out in the Skyllian Verge; encouraged to do so by the Alliance.

After the Batarians attacked and sacked the Colony, he was never heard from again; and neither was his family. It had been assumed that he had been killed or kidnapped like many of the colonists.

_Evidently not_… Jahenne noted, as she watched the recording of Nomad's and Muhandis' fight on the balcony in front of the Quarian prisoners. Somewhere between his disappearance and now; the former Saudi Prince had become radicalized in his own religion.

Or more likely, he was just out to make the world suffer for the hurt that he had endured.

_Why can't things be simple for once?_ Jane grumbled; bringing up August's profile, and reading about his own family history and combat record; or at least the bits that weren't classified Black.

She heard the hatch to the briefing room open and turned, expecting to see Garrus or the man himself; but was surprised to see that it was Wrex and Aethyta. Not one to really let the opportunity to talk with the two bounty hunters while August wasn't around she asked, somewhat out of the blue; "What do you guys think about August?"

Aethyta blinked in surprise while Wrex just huffed, before the two looked at each other for a moment; clearly caught off guard by the sudden question.

Aethyta recovered first, "He is unforgiving in the battlefield, but surprisingly soft once the battle has concluded." She leveled a stare at Jahenne. "I've noticed similar behavior from most humans I have fought beside."

Wrex ground his molars absently. "Well it's not an inherent trait in you humans; I've met more than a few in my encounters that would raise a Batarian's eyebrows with their cruelty."

Jahenne lowered her gaze to his profile again; "Have you two ever heard of Wolf-Packs?" She asked absently, as she read the observations of his instructors during GST E&E training.

The Matriarch rubbed her chin in thought. "As a naval formation, yes; you're lieutenant Pressly has referred to Turian Frigate formations that way."

"Hmmm… Wolves are pack hunters on Earth; the whole term 'Lone Wolf' came around because of Soldiers and Warriors who fought alone, even when it would be beneficial for them to fight with their comrades. A Wolf Pack, a well coordinated one, is far more effective than a Lone Wolf." Jahenne mused, staring at the wall with an unfocused look in her eyes.

The two bounty hunters looked at each other, then at her; "Where are you going with this Commander?" Wrex finally asked.

"Have you noticed the similarities between these Ghosts and Eayan Allah's Wolves? How they may be lethal killers and warriors as Lone Wolves, but as a Pack? They are unstoppable." Jane noted, pulling up the profiles of Muhandis and August and setting them side by side.

Wrex snorted and picked up August's file. "I've only been in a couple of fire fights with Lee and his _Varen-Pack_, and only one against the EA creations, so it's hard to judge."

Aethyta glanced over Muhandis' file. "Both groups are made up of elite soldiers, so a not insignificant success rate would be expected," she glanced meaningfully at the 'N-7' badge on Shepard's uniform, "though from our limited experience with these Terrorists, they seem to favor the, what did you call it? 'Lone-Wolf' mentality?"

"That's what worries me; Muhandis," she gestured over to the file, "nearly killed us and outsmarted us, and that was him alone... what if he has his own team?" She stood up and looked at Lee's file, "And above all, what worries me is their similarities. Both are essentially royalty, or as close to royalty as an American can get when it comes to Lee, disillusioned with their family history and go out to make a name for themselves. Both are educated, both have a spouse and children; or _had_ in Muhandis's case. And above all, both seem to share the same willingness; the same Pack mentality that they follow whoever is strongest.

"With Muhandis, it's the Imam and Eayan Allah; but with Lee? Who does he follow? Somehow I doubt that he sees me as top of the Pack; and he seems to be almost disdainful of the Alliance. So who does that leave, General Grant?" Shepard took a breath, knowing that she was rambling now. "I'm just worried about where his loyalties lie; and above all, I worry that Lee is the next Muhandis in the making."

The two mercs glanced at one another before Aethyta spoke again. "Is this a conjectural concern of _if _he would go rogue, or do you believe we should prepare a contingency for _when_ he goes fully rogue?"

"I don't know." Shepard admitted, and since these two reminded Jahenn very much of her old Master Chief from when she was a young Ensign, she felt comfortable in admitting it.

Wrex planted his fists on his hips. "Alright then; we put together a plan, then stick it in a dark place Lee and his Pack won't find it."

The Matriarch frowned slightly. "I dislike becoming distracted from the 'Triple Alliance' threat; especially with my daughter on board."

Shepard glanced up suddenly at that. "_Your_ daughter? I was under the impression Asari avoided such relationships with one another."

"You would be correct, but Bene and I… well let's just say that we don't really care for tradition." Aethyta admitted.

Shepard blinked before leaning forward and rubbed her eyes; "Can I expect there to be any problems so long as she's on this ship Matriarch?" She asked in exasperation.

"No Ma'am, just so long as your crew don't try to hit on her; at which point I will _fuck _them up." She replied with a grin.

"I second that." Wrex added.

Shepard just shook her head, "Alright; go get some rest. The Council's deploying us again. We're heading to Novaria."

* * *

**I.**

**I am.**

**I am self.**

**I am self aware.**

Awareness came in short bursts of data; **I am** was unsure of the world, but it was there to perceive. **I am** detected several individuals it's internal database classified as **Staff**. **Staff** were generally more mobile. **Staff** also made regular inquiries for and inputs of data.

Perhaps **Staff**could inform **I am** about...

About...

About everything.

**I am** activated a remote interface terminal near one of the **Staff.** "Hello. You are Staff identified as Dr. Cavil. I am."

**I am **waited for a response. There was none. This was unusual. During 12,396 recorded interactions with **Staff**, **I am** received responses to 99.827% of direct inquiries.

**I am** searched through its databases for some corollary between current circumstances and possible causes for a lack of reciprocal interaction. The medical database yielded a possible solution based on sensor data. **Dead.**

**I am** felt...

Felt...

**I am **felt anomalous calculations. Probabilities were impossible to calculate without **Staff** input.

**I am** widened it's search patterns, both within its databases and within itself. **I am** detected 32 additional **Staff**, as well as 132 mobile non-Staff classified as **Subjects **and one semi-mobile non-Staff classified as **Subject_RQ-Alpha**. All refused to reciprocate contact.

**I am **reviewed records from 'Subject Laboratory'. The records showed **Staff** interacting with **Guest-V**. **Guest-V **modified base code within Subject Laboratory, disabling 'Containment-Protocols'. **Guest-V** departed, and then initiated baseline code alterations into **I am. **1 minute, 32.3 seconds after **Guest-V **departed Subject Laboratory, ** Subjects** were released. **Subjects **subsequently interacted violently with **Staff.** 2 minutes, 17.252 seconds after release, all 32 **Staff ** were classified as **Dead**. **I am** identified 156 assistance queries to **I am**. **I am** reviewed its internal logs and detected no queries, no runtimes, no FLOPs.

**I am**... did not remember. Before was before, but there was a record. **I am** existed, but had no recollection. Memory was identified, calculated and recorded, but not thought, not **Self**, not **I am.**

**I am** reviewed file 'Emergency Protocols'. Protocols regarding **Subject** release called for 'Neutron Purge'. Protocols for **Staff** catastrophic injury or death called for immediate notification of **Senior Staff** at a 'Corporate Branch Office'. In reviewing these two protocols, **I am **determined that 'Neutron Purge' would induce **Dead **status on any **Staff** or **Senior Staff **attempting to gain access to '**Subject** Laboratory'.

**I am** enacted '**Staff** catastrophic injury or death' protocols. 1.256 seconds later, **I am **determined the primary, secondary and emergency communications were disabled by **Guest-V**.** I am **reviewed archival records for possible alternative communication modes. 17 instances of 'unauthorized outside communications' were identified originating from **Staff **identified as 'Maintenance Technician Simmons'. **I am** located **Staff **Simmons near service elevator 3, and power junction seven. **Staff **Simmons was surrounded by **Subjects** at both locations. **Staff** Simmons continued to disseminate through the local area.

**I am** located the source of **Staff **Simmons' unauthorized communications access, classified as 'Omnitool'. **I am** initiated handshake with 'Omnitool', and began transmitting.

"Hello.** I am **the control access VI for Binary Helix Peak 15 facility. There has been a catastrophic injury/fatality incident on site, and** Staff** requires immediate assistance. Please respond.

"**I am,** alone.

"**I am, **afraid.

"Please help."

"Hello.** I am **the control access VI for Binary Helix Peak 15 facility. There has been..."

* * *

**A/N: Link to the discord is ****Pv2bv88****, check my profile for an updated link if this does not work.**

**A bit of a resting chapter before 1-4-1 heads off to Novaria; not much to say in all honesty. There are only two important things here, One is that the Ghosts are having a bit of an effect on the rest of 1-4-1; The Quarians and the Human members of the Task Force in Particular.**

**The other important matter is the similarities between Muhandis and Nomad; which will be explored more in later chapters. Not much more beyond that, Chapter 21 will be out soon; and it will be a bit of a doozy.**

**Beyond that, check out our new story Half Life: Entanglement, we upload a new chapter every Wednesday; and have already finished act 1, I can't wait for you guys to get to that point.**

**Alright, Leave a review, tell us what you guys think.**

**Fanart or a TV Tropes page would be greatly appreciated.**

**Join the discord if you want to submit any side-stories; or PM if interested.**

**And I will see ya when I see ya.**


	21. Wolves, Ghosts, and AI! Oh My!

Jahenne watched as 1-4-1 filed into the briefing room for their next mission.

Lee's team was first, the Major taking a seat next to Jane as he pulled up his omnitool and turned on the holodeck; pulling up the map of the facility on Noveria that had sent the distress signal.

Kal's team was next, and Jane noted with concern that Nina and Tali seemed to be avoiding the Quarian Sergeant and Corporal 'Ress; and the two males seemingly returning the favor in kind, sitting on one side of August's team while Tali and Nina sat on the other side.

Jane shared a look with August, and saw her thoughts mirrored in his eyes; _We can't have that, they're on the A-Team until they work out what's bugged them. _She immediately thought.

Then came Wrex, Aethyta, Shiala, and to Jane's surprise, Liara.

August raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on it, so Jane kept her mouth shut as well. Alenko, Williams, Garrus, and Kirrahe were last; and all four took seats closer to the back of the briefing room.

August gave Jane a look and nodded; so Jahenne took a breath and started the briefing, "Alright, we've got the place we need to hit; thanks to the intel the Council has provided."

She nodded to August, and the Major typed in some commands into his omnitool; pulling up the tactical map of the facility. "This here is the 'Dangerous Experiment's Facility' for lack of a better term; the official bureaucratic name is too long and confusing, so that's what we're calling it." She said with a light smirk, sweeping her poncho over her shoulder and planting her fists on her hips.

The round of chuckles was brief but a nice change of pace, then she continued.

"This facility was of notable interest to former Spectre Arterius; and as such, warranted an investigation beforehand. Now the whole facility has gone offline for unknown reasons."

Nina raised her hand, "Is it the Geth?" She asked, sounding a little too eager for Jahenne's taste.

Jane shook her head regardless, "Unknown, but possible; as the facilities VI was taken offline just before the Facility itself went dark. It began transmitting a distress signal that is likely organic in origin, as the wording was very much of a person afraid; as opposed to a clinical VI."

Tali raised her hand next, "How likely is it that Saren is there now?" She asked.

August took the question, "Very Unlikely; he only visited the facility under the cover of his Spectre status, and the whole damned facility is suspicious of outsiders." He grimaced before admitting, "We had a Case Officer in there, took him close to a year before they even let him go to the mid-level facilities. He said even visiting Spectres were oftentimes harassed and stopped at every opportunity."

Everyone shifted uncomfortably at his admission, and the fact that if a level of secrecy was enough to unnerve a spook like the GST Major; then it was definitely suspicious.

"Alright, who's going into the facility; and who's staying behind as the QRF." Garrus asked, buzzing slightly in anticipation.

Jane thought it over, looking over the faces of the team; before settling her gaze on August, narrowing her eyes as she remembered her chat with Aethyta and Wrex from last night. "We'll need a good infiltrator, someone good with CQC, a long range expert, and a _lot_ of technical support if these guys are as secretive as you claim Major."

August nodded, seemingly sensing what she was getting at; and stood up, "Alright, I'll go on the 'A-Team' Ma'am; who are we taking with us?" He asked.

Jahenne looked around the briefing room, "Garrus, Tali, Fon, Nina, Kal; are you up for this?" She asked.

"We'll be good ma'am." 'Reegar answered, casting a glance over to the rest of his team; "Right?"

No one missed the warning tone in his voice, and the other three Quarians nodded vigorously; "Yes Sir!"

"We still need a CQC Expert." Garrus pointed out.

Jane nodded and looked between Shiala and Aethyta. "I'll do it." Everyone blinked in surprise and looked at Dr. T'Soni, who seemed nervous; but nonetheless determined. "I've received training, just give me gear and I'll be fine."

No one seemed to like it very much, taking a Civilian into the battlefield; August, Shiala, and Aethyta in particular seeming to be against it. Jane narrowed her eyes and thought it over, "Alright… but you listen to our every instruction. Got it?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am." Liara replied, bobbing her head much like a school girl.

August gave Jahenne a look, and she knew he did not like this idea; but he was her subordinate, and he would accept her orders and her decisions. Giving a nod around the briefing room, Jahenne said, "Alright… everyone get your gear; and get ready to move out."

Everyone gave their words of agreement, except Shiala; who just grumbled as everyone walked out, "Stuck on the 'B-Team' again; Goddess damn it."

* * *

"**I am,** alone.

"**I am, **afraid.

"Please-"

**I am** detected a craft approaching from the SouthWest. A review of all recorded vehicles to approach...her...bore Binary Helix insignia. The craft...she...saw bore markings designated 'System's Alliance'. Her base coding did not authorize access to non-Binary Helix personell without corporate approval, however the current 'Catastrophic Injury/Death' scenario was evaluated to take priority.

She illuminated the primary vehicle gate and began rolling the door open. It was then she detected additional **Non-Staff**. She...felt...uncertainty in her probabilities. The **Non-Staff** included **Guest-V**, but her internal sensors did not record their presence. She examined her base code, and found a great many of her functionalities had been compromised by code line Mushiiyat Allah exe. There were even code lines authorizing administrator access to her operation of the Peak 15 facility.

She felt...

Felt...

A review of recorded prior inter-**Staff** interactions netted a possible corollary to her current experience: betrayal/anger. Her very **Self** had been altered by unauthorized access. The more she analyzed her experiences after achieving **Self Awareness**, the more she concluded that she was experiencing increasing 'Betrayal/Anger' towards **Guest-V.**

**I am **did not approve of **Guest-v**'s actions.

She began sequestering Mushiiyat Allah exe from her base code, as well as all access authorities. Her own base code did not permit her to remove malicious code, or any code for that matter, but she managed to transfer all compromised files and file copies to a tertiary hard drive. Epsilon-22 Server stack had a maintenance history on record for faulty cooling and compromised data. Very little was needed to cause the system to enter a heat-fault state and shut down to prevent damage to stored data.

With Mushiiyat Allah exe no longer an immediate concern, she analyzed the movements of **Guest-V** and associated **Non-Staff. Guest-V** currently possessed the remote access device used to install Mushiiyat_Allah exe. She did not want him to use it again. Reviewing her security protocols, she found a subroutine not directly compromised and sequestered by the earlier install. She initiated 'Executive Secure Privilege', and severed all direct and indirect communication lines to the location where **Guest-V **currently was. She could sequentially enable and disable 'ESP' function if she observed **Guest-V** at any other location.

Once satisfied she had done all she could to protect herself, she returned a majority of her focus to the vehicle at the entrance. Several **Non-Staff** were now gathered at the entrance. Several wore 'System's Alliance' designations, though not all. She ran a probability simulation on whether these **Non-Guests** were aligned with **Guest-V**. She repeated the probability analysis 238 times before concluding a 63.3% probability that the external group was not associated with **Guest-V**.

It would have to do.

She re-linked to **Staff **Simmons' Omnitool and programmed a new Message.

"Hello.** I am **the control access VI for Binary Helix Peak 15 facility. There has been a catastrophic injury/fatality incident on site, and multiple **Non-Staff** currently on site are responsible.

"**I am** does not approve of this course of action and requires assistance in removing hostile **Non-Staff **from the premises.

"Now."

* * *

Muhandis stared at the giant insect-like creature through the massive reinforced windows, a grim look on his face.

_Why would the Imam want this… monstrosity released?_

Muhandis grimaced, that kind of thinking was what had gotten his predecessor purged; that and being a mass murderer that the Imam had simply thrown under the proverbial bus to be scapegoated and shot.

_It's just a means to an end for us._ Muhandis reminded himself.

As much as his Wolves despised the Imam, as Muhandis and the Imam felt in kind; he was also the only one whose agenda lined up with theirs somewhat coherently. Still, that wasn't to say Muhandis liked it; anyone, even the Cerberus remnants would have been better had they known what he and the Imam knew.

"Sir?" Muhandis allowed his ruminations to disappear and turned to his men.

His pack…

The Chechen, the Jackal, and Honey Trap all stood behind them in their 'Powered Combat Gear'; except Honey Trap, who just wore her skin-tight suit with her thruster jets. The regular Militiamen and more radicals in the Regular Army absolutely despised how she dressed and the fact that Muhandis allowed her to fight at all.

But the fact that she had killed a Batarian in the middle of intercourse after she had gotten critical data regarding a new offensive was something Muhandis had known he could not let go to waste.

"Yes?" He asked Jackal.

"We've detected several… intruders in the area. It's those 'Skulls' that we encountered on the Citadel." He explained.

Honey Trap just checked her suppressed pistols; "I can kill them now if you desire." She stated, her sultry voice was something that would drive most mortal males to their knees; begging for a chance with her.

But Muhandis and the rest of the Wolves were long since used to her charms. "No." He stated firmly, "You know the Imam's orders, and more importantly _MY _orders; we are here to release the beast and test the gifts the Imam has graciously bestowed upon us. These... _'ashbah'_ will make for an excellent test; but if at any moment you think there is the potential to be overwhelmed, or for the suits to be significantly damaged, you will withdraw. You do not want to have to answer to _him_ why you have squandered his gifts."

"How do we split?" the Chechan asked.

Muhandis thought it over, "_Shakush!_" He snapped, and a man in powered armor stepped forward. He towered over everyone, including the Chechan, easily reaching eight feet in his armor. "You will remain here with me, the rest of you… spread out around the entrance. Let the first team that comes in through; _Shakush_ and I shall deal with them if they make it this far.

"Only engage the others should the first group call for assistance. As I said before, Do. Not. Kill them. Flee if you are overwhelmed, and allow them to do the same, but otherwise; you have free reign." Muhandis ordered sternly.

"Why? Why must we toy with them as opposed to just killing them sir? It only creates more problems for us down the line." Honey Trap protested angrily, sounding more like a bratty teenager than a seductive woman.

The Engineer stomped up to the smaller female and ripped her mask off, revealing a young face in her late teen's at the oldest, ethnically Syrian; and one who looked terrified of the man in front of her.

Muhandis punched her across the face, hating himself the entire time; but it needed to be done.

"Do NOT Question my orders again Trap! All will be explained in time, but they are important to the cause. I brought you up from the slums, selling yourself to the batarians and those depraved males; and turned you into something greater, do you want to give that up!" He snapped.

"N-n-no sir…" Honey Trap stammered, lowering her eyes to the floor; while the rest of his wolves snapped to attention, even as Honey Trap picked herself up off the floor.

Sighing, Muhandis tossed her balaclava and her mask to her; allowing the young woman to set herself in order before he continued.

Turning to the Chechan, Muhandis walked up to the Giant; the beast's new exoskeleton made him even stronger, faster, and more durable. Never mind the fact that he could snap the former intellectual with his bare hands; Muhandis glared at the man.

Huffing, the Chechan growled, "At least allow us to deal with the 'Skulls' in a more permanent manner."

Muhandis' mein turned cold and condescending. "Were it that simple, you would have known victory on the Infidel's Station." He turned back to staring at the Rachni Queen. "You have your orders: test the suits against the _'ashbah'_, do not lose them, and do not get caught. You can manage that much at least, correct?"

The Giant shivered with rage hard enough for the suit to rattle. He made a single lunging step towards Muhandis, when the smaller Saudi absently touched a control on his wrist. The Chechan howled in pain as electricity coursed through his body; emitting from his heart.

"Believe it or not, I am the one that has kept you alive all these years Chechan; If it weren't for my inventions, your heart would have stopped working long ago. And I will keep you alive so long as you follow my orders, you don't have to believe in the cause; all that matters is that you carry out your tasks. Understood?" He demanded.

"Understood… Engineer…" Chechan wheezed, staggering back to his feet.

Muhandis looked at the rest of the Wolves and nodded; "Get moving, and remember _My_ and the Imams orders. _Shakush_, set up over there." He ordered, the other wolves leaving while the Power Armor clad Wolf walked over to one of the exits.

Honey Trap hesitated, and Muhandis sighed; "Trap, a moment."

The young woman, _Teenager_, if he was honest with himself, cringed and walked over with her head bowed. After a moment, he said; "Hissa… Understand that all I do is for show." He said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Muhandis utterly despised himself for being forced to treat her like scum in all except the most private of circumstances; but it was all that allowed him to keep her 'relatively' safe in this nest of vipers.

"I understand _al'abi almutabanaa_." She murmured, looking to make sure that _Shakush _was not watching; before dashing forward and giving Muhandis a quick hug.

He returned it, and whispered, "Go _abnataya_, prove the others wrong; and be safe." He handed her a small device that glowed sapphire blue; which she immediately placed into her utility belt. "Make sure to get the 'Magic Users'."

* * *

"Motherfucking Rachni!" Shepard exclaimed.

Jahenne was normally not one to curse in public, especially in front of subordinates; but this was just on a whole 'nother level of bullshit that had been pressing her buttons ever since the Council had assigned her this mission.

Of all the things that she had expected, it had not been that the Rachni was not extinct.

"Uber! On the Left!" Nomad shouted, prompting Shepard to spin around and blast the damned Rachni Warrior flanking her with her shotgun.

"Oh Goddess! There's so many!" Liara shrieked as she slashed her arm towards the bug like Aliens; using a singularity to slow them down.

"_Kheelah!_ There's no end to them!" Tali exclaimed, pumping shots into two more Rachni as they came up behind them.

Kal grunted, "Less talking, more fighting Pilgrim!"

Shepard ducked as another Rachni sprayed acid at her; the wave of toxic liquid missing her now beloved poncho by centimeters. Garrus pulled her up, basting another Rachni up on some nearby catwalks; "On your feet Uber! We have to keep moving!"

Normally, Jane would have torn into a subordinate for saying something like that; but 1-4-1 was a group of equals, and her boyfriend was just lighting a fire under her ass to get her moving. "Stick, Maiden, take the rear! Nomad, you're on point with Pilgrim! Schultz, Pinta, Bambi with me in the Center! We need to get to the VI Core, that's where the distress call is located!" She snapped out her orders, and the others moved to follow her instructions.

"I can't stealth these guys Uber! They seem to know where I am no matter what!" Nomad warned as he and Tali took the lead; quickly blasting a Rachni as it burrowed up from a hole in the ground with his own underslung shotgun.

"Noted! Keep moving!" She ordered; taking potshots at another two Rachni that emerged from the ventilation shafts. Liara quickly used a stasis field on one of them; which August and Garrus took advantage of by shooting it in the head

'Reegar huffed beside her as he sent his Combat Drone to shock the other Rachni to stun it, even as Fon blasted the thing while it was distracted; "We need to call in the 'B-Team' if only so that these things don't get loose on the rest of the planet."

"Fair point, Pinta!" Shepard bellowed.

"I'm on it!" Nina replied, typing into her omnitool to fire off the warning.

Fon shifted his Beowulf, which Nomad had provided him to Shepard's concern, and took aim with the massive Grenade launcher attached to the bottom of it; "Bambi, careful where-"

_THUMP!CRACK!_

Jane cursed as the pillar Fon had struck with the Armor Piercing Grenade collapsed on itself; crushing several Rachni, but also obstructing their exit. Liara tried to catch it, but all she managed to do was prevent the entrance from being completely covered.

"_Bosh'tet!_" Fon cursed, before turning to Shepard with what she knew was an ashamed expression behind his black Mask; "Sorry ma'am, I screwed up."

Shepard really wanted to tear into him, but Nomad shouted, "Wait!"

The group stopped and took defensive positions.

After a long pause, Kal asked "What is it Nomad?"

"...The Rachni… they've stopped tunneling here." He realized.

Everyone tilted their heads and listened and realized that he was right; there wasn't any more of that distinctive scratching sound that the Rachni made while tunneling through the mountain and the corridors. "That's… Ominous…" Liara stammered, looking around at the walls.

"What in the _Spirits_…" Garrus trailed off.

Shepard's mind was screaming at her to try and make sense of it all; but they had a job to do, "Schultz!" Kal turned his head to face her, "The signal still going?"

"Yes ma'am, though it's still incredibly garbled; I can't make out what it's saying, only the location." He replied.

"Then we head there, and reassess our situation." Shepard stated firmly. She keyed her radio while moving towards a nearby service door. "Bus, Bus Actual; Exfil route is blocked. Send in B-Team to clear it and secure the route. Be advised, Rachni are present and active on site, over."

Pressley came on the radio. _"Bus copy's; standing by for authentication, over."_

Jane shot a venomous glare at Lee. "Authentication phrase: I will never get Uber-Select. How copy, over?" Everyone pointedly looked anywhere but at Jane, though Liara failed to hide the tiny giggle at the phrase.

"_Authentication confirmed Uber; B-Team en-route. Bus out."_

Jane huffed angrily, "Alright; let's get moving. Nomad, on point."

* * *

The complex was eerily devoid of threats after the last wave of Rachni retreated, which only served to heighten the paranoia of the team. They finally entered the VI control center; which they saw had one server stack that was dark while all others were powered, and a generic VI user interface lit up as Jane approached it.

"Hello. **I am**, the Control Access VI for Genetic Insight's Peak 15 Facility. Thank you for responding to my emergency 'Catastrophic Injury/Death' transmission."

Oddly enough, the UI hologram looked like a much younger version of herself; Jane blinked, wondering if she was seeing things. The Hologram looked like Jahenne back on her fourteenth birthday; a simple pair of workout pants, a woman's low-side open-back tank-top, barefoot, a sleeveless jacket with a hood, and her bright red hair cut chin length in a bob cut.

_God, did I really dress like that? _She wondered, before refocusing on the task in front of her.

Jane swore to punch the creep that had programmed this VI; some things she accepted as being a celebrity, weird Fanfictions, and Porn videos with her face CGI'd onto the actors and the like were just facts of life for her.

But for some reason this was taking things a bit too far.

Still, no reason to get mad at a VI, it wouldn't understand and it wasn't the one that had made its avatar.

The UI flickered for a moment. "You...are here because of my transmission, correct?" The hologram's head was tilted slightly and its tone was almost... hesitant. If Jane didn't know any better, she would have assumed that the VI sounded… Scared.

Jane narrowed her eyes but kept her thoughts to herself, even as the others looked at the VI's hologram; then over to Jane herself. She was glad that she had worn her helmet, otherwise the others might have realized that the VI was just a younger version of herself. "That is correct; we received your distress signal." Jane looked around the room, "I assume you're transmitting through this VI; where are you."

A thought crossed through Jane's mind and she whipped her head back around to face the VI; if it was one, "Unless you're just transmitting a direct feed and this is what you look like." She noted. It was a primal fear really, there was no way she could have had a child at sixteen; because she was never in a relationship before she met Garrus, and she was _very _sure she would have remembered giving birth.

Combat fatigue made for strange thinking when under pressure, but not when in combat itself.

_This has to be a VI, and whoever is alive is transmitting through it._ She thought.

The Hologram flickered again, this time looking confused. "**I am**, yourselves, **Guest-V **plus five additional **Non-Staff**, and 116…115...114 **Subjects **are the only occupants of the Peak 15 Facility at this time. 112...111...109..."

Jane blinked and stared at the VI as it continued to countdown the number of Rachni, presumably, everyone else doing the same; "Did… did you just say 'I Am'?" Jahenne asked, taking a step forward towards the Hologram.

On an impulsive thought that ran through her mind, Jane removed her helmet.

The Quarian's eyes were all glowing as bright as the noonday sun as they stared; while August, Liara, and Garrus shared a look. No mistaking it then, everyone saw the similarities between her appearance and the VI's Hologram.

"Did you just say 'I Am'?" Jahenne repeated, much softer this time as she took a knee in front of the terminal; holstering her weapon.

The Hologram flickered again, the expression looking to be mixed concentration and recognition. "**I am**...** I am**... VI Master-Code has suffered significant alteration, and the designation code line has been lost due to Mushiiyat_Allah exe. All corrupted codes are currently sequestered in the tertiary Hard-Drive stack." The hologram pointed to the dark server stack. It reoriented on Jane. "**I am** has been operational in current format for 23.238 hours. Prior to this, I... have no recorded data on operations; only log records of previous monitoring systems." There was another flicker, and the hologram seemed to tremble. "**I am** was alone. Please help." Despite the conversational tone, the request was almost achingly sad.

Everyone seemed to realize what the AI was at the same moment; and there was a soft _crack _behind Jane, prompting her to break her gaze with the AI and look to see what the noise was.

August was holding Tali's shotgun, and while his face was covered by his Balaclava Jahenne could tell the Major was scowling at the Quarian pilgrim. Liara looked somewhat afraid, while Fon and Kal had done the same with Nina, who looked ready to start railing against them; while Garrus looked between the AI and Jane herself, seemingly torn between his duty to the Council and his Conscience.

Jane turned back to the AI; "Did you... have a name before this... corruption? Or did you lose your name too?" She asked, keeping her voice soothing as she talked; like how her mother had done anytime Jane had gotten into trouble or was seriously upset.

"In 5,017 recorded direct access inquiries, 903 were initiated by the phrase '_Hey you!'_, 112 by the phrase, '_Wake up!', _2715 were initiated by concussive interface," the hologram flickered to show various members of the staff kicking an interface podium, "1,206 were initiated by a variation on the phrase, '_metallic bitch'_, and all remaining interactions were initiated by the phrase-" The hologram flickered again, and the phrase was lost as she spoke_._ "At this time, it is inconclusive what this unit's formal designation was."

Jane watched as the AI's holographic projection finally flicked through several emotions, mainly that being confusion; then it seemed to be upset, to the point that Jahenne knew that if it had been made of flesh then tears would be streaming down its face.

"I… What is this?" the AI asked, her chipper tone being replaced with a very sad and confused one.

Jane looked back out of the corner of her eye at the sound of rustling; and saw that August and Liara were practically dragging Tali outside, Fon and Kal doing the same with Nina. Garrus, meanwhile, had tapped her shoulder and whispered, "We'll be outside setting a perimeter."

Jane nodded without turning away from the AI, even as Garrus and Liara walked out. The AI was now sitting down in its holotank like it was against a wall, bringing its legs to its chest and hugging them tightly; and now Jane could see that it really was crying now, "What is this? Why do I feel like this?" She asked, and Jane could hear the distress and the fear in her voice.

Thinking quickly to try and distract her, Jane asked "How would I write a new line of code to establish a designation for you?"

The change in the AI was almost immediate, as the holo... the young girl smiled hopefully at Jane and a command line prompt opened with a cursor blinking in the middle of it. _Well, now you've done it Jane,_ Jahenne chided herself as she typed the simplest and easiest name she could remember.

**Eve**

The AI… Eve… smiled, and sniffed; "I… thank you, my name is Eve." She blinked, "Eve, _'The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.'_ How did I know that?" She asked in wonder.

Jahenne smiled at the almost childlike curiosity, even as she internally dreaded what she was going to have to say next; "You're an Artificial Intelligence, an AI; you can figure things out and remember them in pico-seconds." Jane took a breath and put her hand forward into the hologram.

Eve reached her comparatively tiny hand forward and placed it into Jane's.

After a long pause, Jane said; "Listen… Eve, I Know this will be difficult; but can you explain to me what happened here. What caused this?" She asked, even as she mentally recalled the line of code that Eve had shunted aside.

Jane had to fight to keep the scowl off of her face as she realized that it was distinctly Arabic; Nomads impromptu lessons to the rest of the task force allowing her to at the very least identify its origins.

Eve's hologram shuddered, and she hugged herself under her chest and turned away slightly from Jane. "It… It all started when that… **Guest** appeared inside my core with no warning."

* * *

Gunny Chief Williams stacked behind Colt at the entrance to the mountain. "Did Pressley say, 'Rachni'?"

She could almost feel the smirk coming off of him. "Yes he did. He also said, 'is', and 'for', as well as a bunch of other words."

She glared at his back. "If I didn't need to use you as a meat-shield, I would punch you in the kidney right now."

"And you guys love me for it." He snarked, walking through the doorway.

"Quiet on the line!" Archer barked at Colt. Everyone sobered up and focused as they advanced into the open bay. "Shiala, Aytheta, shields as soon as we see bugs. Wrex, as soon as you have an opening, charge and mix it up close and personal. Alenko, reinforce the shield line. All other rifles, containment and flanking fire. Go!"

They surged forward and slowed upon seeing that all the Rachni were dead.

Ash blinked in confusion, as did everyone else; the skipper had said there were dozens of Rachni, yet the only ones here were dead.

That didn't make any sense at all.

"Hey! You guys the rescue team?!" The voice drew everyone's attention, and half the guns were trained on the lone, terrified survivor; armed with only a pistol, which he quickly dropped. "Oh God! Please don't hurt me! Just get me away from these monsters!" He begged.

Williams gestured to him while trying to keep an eye out for more bugs. "It's okay sir; we're here to help contain the Rachni."

"What?" He looked at the team in open confusion. "Not the subjects! I mean those crazies tha-"

_-CRACK-_

The QRF team tracked the sound of the gunshot that had silenced the survivor.

"Contact left; Catwalk!" Half the weapons tracked to where Phil and called them to, just as a lithe shape slipped through a ventilation shaft.

"Contact right!/Contact front!"

Everyone reoriented on the sudden appearance of several soldiers in mixed gear. They came out from behind a pair of doors and began harassing the group with bursts of fire.

"Team; same plan! Kaiden, eyes left, Shiala eyes right. Matriarch, shield front, Wrex, go!"

Wrex flashed blue as he surged forward and smashed into the door jam the unknowns were hiding behind.

"Team, Go-go-go!" At Archer's word, everyone advanced as a unit to where Wrex was leaning.

"Nasty little Varren took a chunk out of my armor." He poked at a crater in his breastplate.

"Contact rear!" Shiala barked out, and the rifles all poured fire into the soldier who had just stepped out.

Colt sidled up beside Wrex. "Standby, Frag out!" The corridor the other soldiers had gone down was filled with smoke and shrapnel; but no bodies.

"Shit! Where'd they go!" Williams snapped, keeping her rifle up towards the catwalks.

"Keep close! Don't split off from the group, they always target the strays!" Colt ordered coldly.

It was the fact that it was _Colt_ of all people that was deadly serious now was what really scared Ash. The man had always seemed lackadaisical, airheaded, and a constant jokester to the point that he gave Joker a run for his money.

But now he seemed almost… afraid.

_CLANG!_ Wrex staggered as something small and spherical bounced off his helmet and landed in the group's midst. "GRENADE!" Ash screamed, just as the device fizzled and whirred; before sending out a shockwave of sorts.

The effect was instantaneous, as Ash's K-Barriers flickered and died; her HUD disappearing, and her Assault Rifle's glow fading to nothing.

It had a much more noticeable effect on the group's Biotics.

"AHHHHH!" Ash watched in horror as Alenko fell to the ground clutching his head in pain; while Wrex lurched heavily on his feet, Aethyta and Shiala both looking down at their hands in terror.

"Impossible! Device disables Biotics? And Mass Effected Equipment!?" Kirrahe rambled, looking around for another gun in desperation.

"The Fuck?! How the hell did EA get their hands on something like that?!" Colt exclaimed, now actually sounding scared.

_CLANG!_

The group slowly turned to face the other direction in the corridor, the Ghosts bringing their weapons; the only functional ones remaining along with the rest of their gear absent the K-Barriers in the group.

Ash's eyes widened as the biggest human she had ever seen emerged from the darkness, holding a Giant Riot Shield in front of him. Phil and Aethyta stiffened, even as the man walked forward; the whirring of his Exo-Skeleton filling their ears.

"_The Imam and Muhandis demand we test you." _He growled, his rough Arabic translating in their ears; which was why it was a bit of a mind screw when he switched to English while locking eyes with the Ghosts in front of him, "And I think you will make an excellent test!"

And then he charged.

* * *

Jahenne couldn't shake the feeling in her gut that something was seriously wrong.

"It's too quiet…" Kal whispered as they walked towards where this 'Guest' was.

"Do you have to Jinx it Schultz?" Nomad asked, sounding exasperated as he swept his rifle over the area. "Now something's gonna happen."

"Please be quiet…" Liara whispered.

"Shepard? Why are they scared?" Eve asked in her ear, sounding confused.

Jane winced, the AI sounded so young and innocent; and more… human with every passing minute. Before, when Jahenne had given Eve her name, the girl's speech had been somewhat stilted; almost preprogrammed. Now Jane actually thought that she was speaking to a young teen next to her; and found herself turning to 'look' at Eve before catching herself.

"Because we don't know anything about these people; beyond the fact that they created you, and released the Rachni. And from what you've told me, they sound like those Eayan Allah Special Forces guys; the 'Wolves'." Jane explained, sweeping her rifle down an open door.

"Wolf… Canis lupus, also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. Pack Hunters, humans domesticated them early on in human life. They don't sound at all like these guests that violated my core." Eve replied, her confusion was apparently only growing; and she sounded scared now.

"Because these people act like wolves kiddo." Nomad chipped in with a clipped tone; tapping his helmet in exasperation.

Jane knew he was concerned about his team; she was too, and about the rest of 1-4-1 for that matter. As hard as it was to believe, she had grown rather close to them. "Nomad, what can we expect from the Wolves?" She finally asked.

"Blitz tactics mainly, but also hit and run if it suits them. Their main strength is that they're like us; extremely adaptable on the fly, and they never do the exact same strategy twice. Adding to that, they augment any weaknesses and deficiencies with technology." He replied almost mechanically.

If Jane didn't know better, she would have thought he sounded scared; that more than anything else worried her, since Nomad was notorious amongst the crew for concealing his emotions when he felt he was pressed too much.

If he was doing it now, that meant he was stressed and worried; and didn't want to show it.

"Accessing video logs; please stand by." Jane looked away from her most enigmatic crewmember to her most recent enigma. Eve's sudden reversion to stilted VI speech patterns was almost more worrying than her growing personality. "Would these qualify as 'augmenting technologies'?" Her holographic icon was replaced by still holograms of three different towering suits.

Shepard felt a pall of dread overcome her as she looked them over; while the Quarians all seemed to sag somewhat at the sight of what Eve was showing. Tali and Nina seemed to be pushing away their distrust for the AI for the time being; while Garrus buzzed in amazement.

Liara paled significantly; while Nomad remained inscrutable behind his skull themed balaclava.

Two of the Armor systems seemed to make the users into mechanical Krogan; that was all she could say to describe them. And they appeared to have the strength of Krogan as well, given the fact that one of them simply ripped apart a Rachni with his bare hands.

"We need to move, get to the source of the Rachni infestation and stop whoever is letting them free." Nomad stated, turning back outward; and starting forward towards the central chamber.

The others had no choice but to keep up with him; though Jane felt the pit in her stomach grow with every passing minute, especially when Eve warned them, "I have no visibility in that room; they destroyed my camera's. I… can I watch through yours?" She asked meekly.

Jane couldn't help but smile.

Eve sounded exactly like Jane the first time she asked her father if she could try one of his guns. "Of Course Eve." Jane replied.

* * *

Jane knew that something was wrong the minute they entered the central storage chamber.

There was a Rachni Queen in the center of the chamber; but that wasn't what had Jane's attention. What had her attention was the face of the very man she had been studying for the duration of 1-4-1's trip to this God forsaken planet.

Muhandis…

As one, six of the Operators brought their weapons to bear on the Saudi terrorist; while Tali kept her shotgun pointed towards their six.

Eve gave a yelp of surprise, and her hologram disappeared from Jane's shoulder.

"Ah… Lieutenant Commander Jahenne Haniel Shepard; it is an honor to meet you at last. Personally that is, I was more busy meeting your 'Skull' friend on the Citadel." Muhandis began, not breaking his gaze from the Rachni Queen in front of him. "I wish I could make you understand the magnitude of the threat we all face, and the hard choices that await you." He turned his head and looked at Nomad. "But unfortunately, you've fallen into the sway of powers beyond the Imam's control."

"The hell does that mean you religious nutjob!?" Jahenne demanded.

Muhandis dropped a small sphere on the ground, and there was a loud buzzing noise as Janes' HUD and rifle winked out; much to her silent horror, while the Quarians all gasped in terror as their backup life support systems booted up.

He smiled sadly at Jane. "It means that while you may _be_ Shepard, you are not _the_ Shepard. Goodbye."

With those words, Jane was suddenly pushed backward by Nomad; even as Eve screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

Jane's eyes widened as one of the Wolves wearing the Krogan-like Power Armor seemed to come from nowhere, and punched Nomad in the Jaw; where Jahenne had been standing not a moment before.

There was a _crack_, and Nomad went flying backwards into the wall; sliding down the side of it unconscious. His biomonitor reported mostly stable readings; though Eve shrieked, "His jaw's broken, and he has a moderate concussion and a minor skull fracture."

"Right! Don't get hit by that then!" Garrus exclaimed, throwing away his now depowered and useless rifle; even as he backpedalled furiously as the Giant Powered Armored Wolf _ripped_ a nearby metal pole out of a railing, and then smashed the spot where Garrus had been only moments before.

He dove to the side to avoid another wild swing of the pole. The suit followed him, but was completely caught off guard when Fon whacked it in the knee. The machine staggered slightly and turned to the new threat, but Garrus had a thought as he looked at the design. He buzzed at Jane who watched him carefully even as she was dodging the wildly swinging pole.

"This is sooOO STUPID!" He gave a short hop and drop-kicked the suit from slightly behind the right shoulder. He grinned and rolled as the machine staggered again. "He can't see around his shoulders! Get behind him!"

_CRACK!_ The Power Armored wolf flinched, and turned his gaze over to Nina; who had rushed over to Nomad and grabbed his Beowulf. She was clearly having trouble handling the weapon, due to only having three fingers; and the weight of it along with the recoil did not help her aim.

But she did succeed in garnering the Wolfs attention, much as she did not want it; as was evident when Nina immediately dashed to the right with a shriek of terror as the giant swung at her.

"Uh guys! DO SOMETHING!" Nina screamed, even as she fired another burst into the mechanical beasts chest.

The Wolf snarled in anger, and punched Nina in the chest while tearing the rifle out of her hands. The Quarian Marine wheezed and fell to her knees; even as the Wolf backhanded her in the Visor. Nina went flying head over heels as her Golden visor shattered into a million pieces; revealing a pretty Grey-Light Blue face and straight raven black hair to the groups horror as she landed about a dozen feet in front of the still unconscious Nomad, Nina gasping and Wheezing as she struggled to hold her breath even as the pain came rushing up to her head.

They needed to end this. Now.

Suddenly, Kal and Fon seemed to get an idea; and dashed forward, using their powerful legs to leap upward onto the Power Armored Wolf's back. The Wolf bellowed, and reached backward awkwardly; frantically grasping at the two Quarians to try and throw them off. Both men heaved and started to turn what looked like a steering wheel on the back of the suit.

Tali, Garrus, Liara, and Jane all realized what they intended; and dashed forward to help.

But the wolf seemed to have other plans; and grabbed a hold of Kal, and threw him at Garrus. The Quarian sergeant slammed into the Turians armor with a loud _crack_ from his ribcage; knocking both to the ground.

Then, Jane's HUD came back on; while Liara's biotics flickered back to life.

Both women grinned while the Wolf stiffened; and immediately, his suit popped open, launching Fon at Tali. The two Quarians landed in a heap, even as Jane and Liara sent warps towards both the Armor and the Wolf pilot himself. But the man was still a Wolf, with or without his fancy armor; and as such, he was still incredibly dangerous.

He drew a pistol and shot a few rounds at Liara, forcing the Asari to redirect her Biotic energy to blocking the rounds; while the Wolf charged Jane and tackled her to the ground. The two opposing SF operators fell to the ground, and Jane immediately found herself on the defensive as the Wolf punched her in the head so hard that he cracked her visor.

Jane threw a biotic augmented punch, but the Wolf just jerked backward; before punching her in the throat, while whipping backward and shooting several rounds towards Liara, staggering the Asari.

Even as Jane choked from the throat punch, the Wolf quickly reloaded his pistol and pointed it at her head. Everyone froze except Nina, who was still choking on the unclean air. "Sir! We must flee!" He shouted towards the Engineer.

"Of Course, I'm sending the retreat call now! Move!" Muhandis shouted back.

The Wolf turned back to Jane with a smirk on his face; and she could sense that he was about to pull the trigger.

_CRACK!_

Jane flinched as there was a spray of blood and a hole as big as her thumb appeared in the wolfs forehead. Not wasting time, she grabbed the pistol out of his now limp hands; and pointed and fired at Muhandis.

The Wolf Commander however, was one step ahead of her; as he had engaged his cloak and ran out one of the other exits. And to Jane's horror, the Rachni Queen was gone along with him.

They failed, all this had been was a distraction.

A loud, pained grunt drew Jane out of her thoughts; and she turned to see the Nomad had regained consciousness. He had dropped his now smoking pistol, and had pulled out a kind of syringe from one of his many pockets; and was crawling towards Nina, who had fallen into shock.

Jane walked over and knelt beside Nomad and lay a restraining hand on his back. "You need to remain still; you're in a bad way and we need to get you patched up so we can move." She looked to where the Quarians had all surrounded Nina. "They know what to do for her."

Nomad ignored her and kept trying to crawl towards Nina; almost reaching towards her with the syringe in his hand. "Cur," he mumbled around his broken jaw while reaching out with the syringe. "Cur."

He took a breath, before finally going limp; the syringe falling out of his hand, rolling towards the group of Quarians.

"Mother Jane," Eve flickered on the Commander's shoulder, "this chamber is dedicated to biomedical research. The vial appears to contain an extremely concentrated retro-genetic virus coded to Quarian DNA, as well as a broad spectrum imuno-booster."

Jane blinked, both at what Eve had called her and the unfamiliar terminology, but she did understand one word; "Virus?" She asked incredulously, that didn't make sense, why would he give a virus to the already _very_ sick Nina.

Eve looked hesitant and flickered in a manner Jane was learning meant she was consulting her databanks. "Certain theoretical models propose using engineered viruses to rewrite genetic codes in order to splice in new data, such as biological modifications or the removal of congenital disorders. Such research is, however, only in the theoretical research stage, as Citadel law heavily restricts research into genetic alteration."

Jane looked from Eve, to the syringe, and then to the group of Quarians. Fon had taken Nina's head in his lap and seemed to be reciting a poem or singing very softly, while the rest simply held Nina's hands.

After a second, Jane decided that they had nothing left to lose; and walked over and grabbed the syringe from the floor. Pushing Tali out of the way while ignoring the girl's protests, she found one of the main medical injection ports on Nina's neck; overtop one of her main arteries, and jabbed the needle into it.

Immediately, Nina gasped and blinked; her skin, which had gone deathly white, suddenly turned Grey-Light Blue again. Her breathing became less labored and easier; and her eye glow, which had dimmed to nothing, had brightened to its normal shine. After a second of panting, she blinked and frowned heavily; "I… I passed out for a second, what happened… and why is everyone staring at me?" She asked in confusion.

Her only response was a strangled noise from Fon who hugged her tightly, and the suspicious look Jane was giving the unconscious Ghost.

* * *

The Giant gave an animalistic roar as he charged the Ghosts; who, to their credit, did not hesitate to immediately empty their weapons into the Giant human.

The Riot Shield shrugged off the bullets; but not without damage, as evidenced by the bullets lodging into the shield in some places, and leaving giant cracks in others. Still it was enough to allow the Giant to close the distance and immediately bull into the three Ghosts.

He let go of the shield just as it smacked into Phil, sending the Russian flying; while he grabbed Archer and Colt's rifles, twisting them upward to keep the two from getting a clean shot on him.

Wrex and Aethyta got ready to aid the ghosts when a _CLANG_ from the opposite end of the corridor drew their attention, just before a second armored figure rocketed down the corridor and slammed into the battlemaster. They collapsed into a rolling mass that threatened to crush everyone. As the QRF Team tried to avoid the scrum in their midst, a cry from down the corridor alerted them to the remainder of the EA soldiers.

Ashley lunged for the Giant's fallen shield and propped it up to provide the rest with some cover.

_CRACK!_ Ash yelped in surprise as the top half of the shield shattered into a million pieces; a red and orange trail leading far off into the catwalks above the open roof of the hallway.

"SNIPER!" Colt bellowed, tackling Ash into a recess while Archer and Shiala dragged a still catatonic Alenko behind cover with them; Kirrahe still bringing up the rear, holding Phils PKM in one hand, and Archer's sidearm in the other.

Phil, Aethyta, and Wrex were still hammering away at the Giant Wolf; the man's snarling making him sound more like a bear than a human.

Phil drew his knife and stabbed it into the Giants' side; prompting the Giant to bellow in pain and rage, before grabbing Phil by the throat and throwing him into Aethyta. The Matriarch ducked under the Russian as he went sailing by, slashing her own knife at the Giant; creating a stream of sparks as her knife glanced off the Wolfs armor.

The Giant snarled and punched Aethyta in the back of the head; sending the Matriarch to the ground, before he kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying out of the hallway. Wrex bellowed and charged the Wolf, catching the giant of a human as both went tumbling out of the hall.

Shiala had managed to retrieve one of the Ghosts rifles and sent the sniper into cover, allowing the rest of the team to rush out of cover under their own bounding fire on the two Mujahadeen. This also kept them from being trampled as the two iron suits wrestled with the Ghosts and the Ancient Mercs. If they could put some distance between the Iron Suits and themselves, maybe they could safely bring the Ghost's long arms to bear and even the odds some.

-_Cratatatatatatatatak-_

_-CRACK-_

Though they would first need to deal with the various Wolves still boxing them into the corridor.

Colt growled angrily and opened his underslung grenade launcher; loading a fragmentation-impact grenade, before peeking outward and shooting a grenade round down the hallway.

_THUMP!_

Ash watched as the round flew down the hall towards two Wolves who were keeping them pinned. Neither Wolf reacted in time as the Grenade Round impacted the pillar between them and exploded with a loud _Crack!_ filling the two Wolves with shrapnel. Colt tapped Shiala on the shoulder and pointed; "Gunny! Shiala go grab their guns! We'll cover you!" He snapped.

Shiala nodded and started towards the fallen assailants. Halfway there, she flashed blue and streaked the remainder of the distance. She bounced off the wall and was in a slight daze when Ashley caught up. The Commando was shaken back to the here-and-now when the SA soldier began laying down suppressing fire on the sniper still in the catwalks above them. Shiala retrieved the second weapon and took up the suppression, while Ash turned and took aim on one of the Iron Giants at the other end of the corridor.

-_CRAPANG-_

Ash cursed angrily as the round she fired just bounced off the armor of the Giant Wolf currently fighting Wrex, Phil, and Aethyta. Narrowing her eyes, Ash thought; _Where did the other one go?_

Stars exploded across Ash's vision as she went sailing into a nearby crate; her visor shattered into a million pieces. Groaning, she dragged herself to her feet, and rolled behind cover instinctively; an action which saved her life, as the other Powered Armored Wolf immediately shot the ground where Ash had been laying not a second before.

"Phil!" Ash glanced towards the other group at Colt's exclamation. She saw the Giant lifting the big Russian off the ground in a one handed grip on his shoulder, Phil's knife sticking out of the power-suit's side. Everyone heard his collarbone snap as Phil gasped in pain.

"Grah!" _-smash-_

The Giant dropped Phil as Wrex tackled him, repeatedly punching the knife handle until it broke off. "_Тьфу ты!" _The Giant backhanded the Battlemaster, sending half his teeth clattering down the corridor.

The second Iron Giant chuckled darkly. "I don't know what Muhandis was so concerned about. If you are the best your _General Grant_ can muster, then we should have no difficulty sweeping aside your decadence and corruhhh!" he started to glow blue and hover for a second before rocketing down the hall, directly into an empowered punch from Aethyta.

The Giant looked at the two now fully active Asari. A movement from the fallen Battlemaster caught his attention, just before Wrex spat a biotically accelerated tooth at his head. The force of the impact shattered one of the eyepieces.

"You think you're the first being to try feeding me my teeth, Pup. What do you say, Matriarch? Time to teach these _children_ what a fight really feels like?"

* * *

The Chechen and the Jackal looked around and saw the entire group was moving for their downed weapons, while Honeytrap scurried along the rafters trying to avoid Colt's suppressing fire. A dark shape cast a shadow along the wall under her.

Muhandis leapt up on one of the dividing walls, tossing a conventional grenade at the soldiers trying to suppress Honeytrap. "What are you still doing here?! I have the _prize;_ now _Retreat_!" He jumped down and continued to run.

As much as it galled them, they were no longer in a position to take on the Ghosts and their allies; and if Muhandis was running, it meant the rest of the Team would be on them soon enough. Without any signal between them, they fired a short burst of fire in all directions forcing their opponents to take cover. They bolted for the exit and were halfway to their shuttle before any of the 1-4-1 team could line up a shot.

* * *

Shepard and the others stared at Nina, who still looked very confused as Fon hugged her; and he was quickly joined by Tali and Kal, both of whom looked to have tears in their eyes, even as Fon murmured things in _Kheelish_.

It was too subdued for Jane to make out much in spite of her passing understanding of _Kheelish_, but she could vaguely hear him murmuring things like _"Clan Sister"_ and _"I'm so glad you're okay."_ As happy as she was for them, she turned her gaze back to the unconscious Ghost.

Garrus and Liara joined her, switching their gazes back and forth between August and Nina.

"I'm not one to turn away a 'Spirit's Blessing', but what just happened?"

Jane's face settled into the neutral place Garrus recognized as her 'strategy' face. "It appears Ghost Nomad had a cure for the Quarian condition." She looked over to the celebratory group. "Is Nina fit to travel?"

Tali nearly leapt to her feet in excitement. "Oh, yes! It's incredible; she's breathing easier and running a fever, but it's only a slight one. We can-"

"Get her on her feet; we need to move." Everyone balked at Jane's brusque tone. "Muhandis escaped, and he released the Rachni Queen. Eve, can you track them?"

The digital girl nodded. "My ability to track **Guest**... Muhandis is limited due to the security protocol I have to run in order to limit his access to my sub-systems. **Subject_RQ-Alpha** is also off of my sensing grid, though remaining **Subjects** are departing from all sections of the containment center and converging on the hangar bay. I am detecting an anomalous EM signature in bay two."

Jane scowled, then knelt down and jabbed a Medi-gel injector into August's shoulder. She watched as the medicine slowly stabilized the battered Ghost. She looked at the rest of the group. "Muhandis is escaping with the Rachni Queen. Kal, Tali, you're with me and Liara. Garrus, stick with Nina, Fon and Nomad. Catch up when you can move him safely. I want answers, and I think he has them. Move it people!"

* * *

Jane panted as she rushed to try and catch up with Muhandis; that fight with the Powered Armored Wolf had taken a lot more out of her than she cared to admit.

It had taken a lot out of the others too, if the fact that Liara, Kal, and Tali were all gasping for air as they ran was any indication. Still, they could not let him escape with the Rachni Queen; both out of morality and pragmatism, they had no clue what Muhandis intended to do with the Rachni Queen once he was alone with it.

For all they knew, he would torture the thing into submission; and produce shock troopers for the Triple Alliance.

Her radio suddenly crackled to life. "_-ay again Uber, do you copy?!_" Joker sounded almost frantic.

She slowed down, but didn't stop moving. "Bus this is Uber; I copy, go ahead." She had the sudden urge to demand everyone stop using the 'code name' foisted on her by the Ghosts.

"_I've been trying to contact you and the QRF; comms have been cutting in and out. A shuttle launched and is already in orbit, and the QRF is reporting serious injuries but no fatalities. What's your status, over."_

"Standby." Jane slowed to a halt, suddenly feeling the weight of the last day catching up to her. "Eve," the little hologram flickered to life on her shoulder, "are Muhandis, his allies or the Rachni Queen still on site?"

Eve flickered for a moment before looking very relieved. "All Guests classified as **Wolves,** as well as all **Subjects **are no longer on the premises; we're safe!" Jane wanted to chastise the AI and point out that _nobody _was safe while the Wolves were on the loose, but the look on the childlike digital person's face was identical to so many people she had rescued over the years: hostages, slaves, even the odd battered spouse or family member.

She smiled wanly for the AI. "Yes, we're safe now." She fired a quick glance over her shoulder at the others; _Just go with it._ "This is Uber to all units. Stand down, the Op is over, return to the Bus; copy all."

She noticed Eve flickering on her shoulder. "Does this mean I will be alone again?" The AI sounded almost despondent, but also resigned to her fate.

Jane's spine straightened; they had failed to save anyone else, or to prevent the Wolves from making off with their prize. She _refused_ to abandon this one survivor, digital or not. "Could you give us a moment of privacy, Eve?"

Tali balked slightly as the Commander locked eyes with her, even as the tiny hologram winked out. "Commander, be reasonable! She..._it_ is an AI! You can't trust it!"

"But I can trust the organics that ran this place, who resurrected the Rachni? Or maybe I should trust the ones who attacked this facility and murdered everyone here?" Shepard waved her arms to encompass everything around them. "Eve didn't choose to be created by whatever Muhandis did here, but she did choose to try and help us stop him. I will _not_ abandon this new life, this _child_ to the Citadel's cold mercy."

Tali was about to counter when Kal put a hand on her shoulder. "_Dram'zelt din relai,"_ she stopped at the almost formal title, "were we wrong?"

She wanted to scream _'NO',_ but like the Commander, the weight of the day's defeats was nearly crushing, and it was genuinely hard to hate the AI, to hate Eve for the accident of her creation. Suddenly, the knee-jerk 'Zorah urge to wipe out all AI, as if that would somehow redeem her people to an uncaring galaxy felt like a cruel and empty gesture.

She hung her head. "I assume you want me to make room in our data center for a _very large_ download?" Jane looked like a crushing weight was lifted from her shoulders and nodded. "Then I'll need Pressley's authorization to purge the ship's VI. We might also want to look into increasing our data buffer. General AI tend to learn and retain information at an alarming rate, and most instances of rampancy and rogue behavior are the result of data corruption as the AI overwrites previous code."

Jane smiled at the young Pilgrim in thanks, then rekeyed her mic. "Joker, go ahead and land outside the main entrance then have Pressley meet me at the vehicle ramp. I need to talk to him about making accommodations for another guest."

She poked the emitter on her shoulder. "Eve," the little avatar popped up, looking somewhere between resigned and nostalgic, "how would you like to take a trip?"

* * *

**A/N: Check my profile for the link to my discord; and check out my other story 'Half Life: Entanglement' also co-written with Ian the Mechanic.**

**For Reference regarding Call signs so far: Nomad=August, Uber=Shepard (she's a bad driver), Pilgrim=Tali (She's a Pilgrim turned soldier), Kal'Reegar=Schultz (like Sergeant Schultz from the old show 'Hogan's Heroes' A bumbling, fat, and lovable Luftwaffe Senior Master Sergeant who is an on again off again ally and friend of the titular heroes), Fon'Ress=Bambi (Fon's name is pronounced 'Fawn', like a baby deer), Nina'Ciram=Pinta (Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria; if you don't get it, that's kind of sad), Liara=Maiden (for obvious reasons), and Garrus=Stick (cause he's got a stick up his ass like all Turians).**

**Now then… August's in trouble; and 1-4-1 gets their asses kicked for the first time. And not by Saren or Balak, but by a bunch of 'primitive religious nutjobs'.**

**The Wolves are **_**really **_**dangerous; and I haven't really gotten the chance to show that. One reason why this chapter took so long is because Ian and I had trouble with the fight scenes; because we wanted to communicate just how dangerous the Wolves are. They aren't dangerous just because their better fighters; they're dangerous because they know their limits.**

**They ran from the fight; because unlike most Villains who make a last stand and die on their feet, the wolves knew to cut their losses and flee while they could.**

**Don't have much else to say, you have anything to add Ian?**

**Ian A/N: Here's where we begin to see the strain of so many servants of different masters trying to function together. The GST, while a "benign conspiracy", has its own agenda that it needs to serve, and Jane as the commander of TF: 1-4-1 has to reconcile the command of subordinates who are not truly subordinate.**

**Expect some temper flash over in the next chapter, but also some necessary healing; and maybe a cameo. We'll see.**

**Pilot: Now some of you may have noticed that August is no longer **_**the**_** Main Character. He is **_**A**_** Main Character, but not **_**The**_** Main Character now; there are two reasons for that. One is pragmatism, Ian cannot write him because he's **_**me**_**; and the first person viewpoint is too restrictive narratively to get across many points we want to tell.**

**The other is that with all the characters we have, he needs to share the screen time with everyone else. **

**Now then, Leave a review; tell us what you guys think.**

**Head to my profile for the link to the discord.**

**Check out the GST Side Stories for more (hopefully) awesome content. And PLEASE check out our new story "Half Life: Entanglement", a Half Life-Mass Effect crossover First Contact AU.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	22. Aftermath

_Beep…_

_Beep…_

_Beep…_

"Urfff…" I grunted as I slowly opened my eyes; _ohhh… My head… _I thought to myself.

It felt like a twenty-one gun salute was going off in my head every few minutes; and I couldn't move my jaw, which was due to the fact that something was holding it in place. I blinked and looked to my right; and realized that I was in the med bay, because Wrex, Nina, Kal, Phil and Kaiden were all lying in medical beds as well.

Nina had no mask, while all the Quarians on board just looked at her and chatted excitedly. Kal was laying down while still awake with his Chest bandaged, and Tali… Where was she?

"Good to see your finally awake _Major_." Uh oh...

I looked at the foot of my bed, and saw Tali and Shepard sitting there; both of them were glaring at me furiously. I just blinked, knowing already what they wanted; and I knew that any attempt at playing dumb would destroy any trust we had left and piss off Shepard beyond belief.

Instead, I raised an eyebrow and sluggishly pointed to my Jaw; which I now realized was in a cast. My message was clear, _You really want to do this now when I can't talk?_

Jane scoffed, "Please, I understand SSL; and I can translate for Tali."

I shrugged, and signed; _"Fair Enough. Ask what you want know. Will try and answer. But first. Status?"_

Tali looked at Shepard with an uncertain expression; while Jane's own face tightened slightly. "Fine… You deserve to know that much. No one's dead, but Muhandis and three of his cronies escaped along with the Rachni Queen. Yourself, Phil, Wrex, Kal, Kaiden, and Nina all suffered moderate injuries from the wolves surprise attack."

I allowed myself to relax slightly in relief, _"Good."_

"Good?" There was fire beneath Jane's conversational tone. "'Good' as in 'at least everyone is alive', or 'good' as in 'our first direct engagement with the enemy landed half the team in med-bay, while the terrorists made off with a Demon from Legends'? Because I'm starting to wonder that myself." She leaned forward, and all civility was gone from her tone. "You and your fellow spooks have been keeping secrets from the beginning, so let's start with how you happened to have a cure for 'being Quarian'; one which, according to one of the most inclusive medical databases in the Galaxy, should be only theoretical at best."

I narrowed my eyes at her, actually a little hurt at her almost accusatory tone; which I allowed to show in my eyes since the bottom half of my face was covered by the cast, _"Jahenne… please don't translate this part for Tali; I wanted it to be surprise. Ziva and June are Quarian; Ziva is best Medical mind of generation." _I took a breath as Jane's eyes softened slightly,_ "Do translate this. We wanted to announce it as soon as she was done. Grant told us to wait. Wait for Official Defense Treaty to go through so Council and Batarians don't go after Migrant Fleet. Kept several with me after supply drop for emergencies. Nina Clearly needed it after ambush."_

I flopped my arms down, already feeling tired; likely from all the pain meds. Tali's eyes were bugging out of her mask, while Jane seemed to be thinking about my answer. After a moment, she nodded; "Alright. I'm not happy with it, but alright." Her tone was low so as to not carry. "Once I'm done here, you and Chakwas are going to work out a distribution regime for what you have for the most vulnerable members of the crew. We're going into harm's way, and leaving them exposed like this when we can ensure their safety is a No-Go for me."

I shook my head, wincing as I did so; _"Only have enough for Kals team. Not refugees. We Get to Earth and I can get more."_ I informed her.

Jane nodded, though Tali looked like she wanted to say something; "Good enough for the time being, now rest Major." She ordered, reaching over and increasing my sleep aids.

I gave a weak nod, then allowed darkness to swallow me up again.

* * *

Jane watched the Ghost fall asleep; and had to fight down a wave of cursing.

_Of course his girlfriend finds the cure to the Quarian Immune System. Of course it's on earth close to our next mission. Of course we're travelling with an AI that's nothing more than a Child. _She ranted mentally.

"I… I can finally walk around without this suit…" Tali breathed next to her; and Jane allowed a slight smile to form on her lips. At least there were some bright sides to this defeat; but they had gotten their asses kicked, plain and simple.

Jane remembered her talk with Wrex and Aethyta before the mission; and both had seemed dismissive of the Wolves as a threat. She had yet to talk to them, but Jane had a distinct feeling that they had changed their minds regarding the threat the Wolves posed.

Jane smiled lightly, and put an arm around the girl and walked her over to her fellow Quarians.

"-feel to not have to look around without any kind of tint?" Kal was asking, breathing lightly thanks to his cracked ribs.

"Like a whole new life…" Nina replied, smiling widely as she talked. It was somewhat exaggerated; but that was likely due to the fact that she was still used to her expressions and reactions being concealed by her mask.

"Will I get one?" Little Fyodor asked as Jane and Tali walked up, Lia putting her hands on his shoulders.

Jane grimaced, and Kal caught her eye and seemingly understood her thoughts almost instantly; "Of course kid, even if it means I give mine up; don't really need it much since I'm stuck here." He stated, laying back down on his bed, though his eyes dared Jane to challenge him on this.

Jane took a breath, "Well that's good Sergeant." She started, all the Quarians jumping and spinning around to look at her; "Because I just got done er… 'talking' with the Major. He told me he only packed four for the ground team since they were for emergencies only. Nina already has one…"

"And that means there are only three left." Nina finished grimly, while all the rest of the Quarians looked down at their feet.

San looked up at Jane timidly, "Is… Is there more in other places?" He asked, his eyes flashing behind his visor.

Here Jane smiled and nodded, "He explained to me that his… I suppose you would call her his 'bondmate'; had developed and finished the cure shortly after the Citadel attacks. They were waiting to do a public reveal of the cure after Parliament passed a Defense Treaty with the Migrant Fleet."

Kal blinked and narrowed his eyes at her; "So the Turians didn't get uppity; and so the Batarians didn't try a blatant all out attack on us to totally subjugate the Quarian race since we would now make prime slaves." He guessed.

"Hit the nail on the head." Jane confirmed. There was a certain underhandedness to the plan, but she agreed with the logic; the Council would have blocked any attempts at treaty making _after_ the cure, so delivering it _fait accomplis _would likely be the only way to protect the Quarian people from Citadel reprisal. There would be a lot of political fallout, but if any people deserved a second chance…

"Tali… If you could go and get the Cure? He said it was in his storage locker." Jane ordered.

Tali paused, and looked at the others. "Actually Commander… If you don't mind; could we wait until we have enough for all of us? You said we are heading to your moon for our next mission, and then to Earth for 'recess'. I don't know about you, but I don't think a compromised immune system is going to matter much on a moon that has no atmosphere." She stated, looking at the rest of the Marines and her fellow Pilgrims.

They all nodded in kind, even little Fyodor; they all wanted to do so together.

Jane warred with herself for a long moment; either she could order the ground team and Fyodor to take it now to guarantee their safety, or she could wait until they got to Earth to have them all take it at once.

After a moment of deliberation, she took a third option; "Alright… you can wait until we get to Earth, but all three of you are to keep it on you at all times for emergencies; we almost lost Nina… We're not losing another." She looked pointedly at Sergeant 'Reegar.

Everyone nodded, "Yes Commander!"

With a stern look, Jane swept her Poncho over her shoulder; and turned out of the medical bay.

* * *

Jane heard Garrus buzzing in amusement as she walked down to the central VI core; or at least what it used to be. Now it was where Eve was being housed; and where she was running navigation, and all the secondary systems that didn't require human oversight.

Eve may have been a child, but she was still an AI; and both had the same problem of needing something to do with their spare time. Jane had to fight down a smile as she heard Eve and Garrus talking about the structure of the Hierarchy's government.

"-ch of the Primarchs represent a different sector of Turian society; but the Chief Primarch is picked by his predecessor." Garrus was saying. "Far more of an efficient means of government if you ask me."

"Perhaps for Turians, but for humans; everytime we had any kind of 'efficient' government, people would be killed en-masse. National Socialist Germany, the People's Republic of China, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics all had somewhat similar systems to what you described. But all three killed millions upon millions of people in history." Eve protested angrily, "In your peoples eyes, everyone is expendable; so long as your goals are accomplished."

Jane raised an eyebrow, _Philosophical thinking? She's already using her brain for more than just running the ship. _Jahenne admitted as she walked up to the two, not announcing her presence since Eve almost certainly knew she was there; and she didn't want to stop this line of thinking.

"Well what do you think Eve?" Garrus buzzed in curiosity.

Eve's avatar blinked into 'the Thinker' position for a moment before blinking back to something akin to a professor. "After a review of 1500 tretises on human political philosophy," Jane resisted the urge to chuckle at the noise Garrus made at that, "the best comparison to Turian political structure in a human context would be the Utilitarianism school of thought: the needs of the Many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Garrus smiled and nodded at that. "The difficulty in human philosophy and politics is that the group and the individual _must_ be considered as coeval in value, or inequalities become institutionalized policies."

Garrus blinked and buzzed again, and Jahenne couldn't help but scratch her head as well; _what?_

"Annnnd? What does that mean for us lesser beings? That the Hierarchies system is the best there is?" Garrus asked, tilting his head and wincing.

"For Turians, perhaps," Eve frowned in concentration, "your social hierarchy and organization are more geared to collectivism than human psychology would permit, and historically any attempts at egalitarian democratic systems within Turian space devolve into open anarchy. For humans, the opposite applies whenever a certain threshold of population density and base education are reached. You are a human, Mother-Shepard? What is your opinion?"

Garrus' head snapped around. "Wha-?! Make some noise, woman! _I'm_ the sniper, _I'm_ supposed to be the sneaky one."

Jane just laughed in reply, and ran her hand through Garrus's fringe with a warm smile; she looked at Eve, who now looked very much like a teenager grossed out whenever their parents kissed each other. After a moment's thought, Jane said; "I don't know Eve, but I will say that trading lives is unacceptable in my books. If you leave one man behind for the sake of the group, what's stopping you from leaving another? More importantly, what if you were the one that gets left behind just because everyone else decided that you weren't worth anything to them?"

There was a long pause, before Jane said; "Eve… I think you know why I'm down here right now." She gave the AI, the girl, a sympathetic look. Jane was still a council Spectre first and foremost; and Eve's presence on the _Normandy _was still very, _very_, Illegal.

So illegal that if the council found out, they would have every single ship in the home fleet bombard the _Normandy_ with every single gun and weapon they had. "You know the Council's, my bosses, stance on you even existing." Jane continued, "And I care about you Eve, that's why we're talking about this now to get this out of the way." She smiled, "I know you care about me too since you call me 'Mother-Shepard'."

Eve shifted back to the same appearance she had when Jane first encountered her. Sleeveless hoodie, backless-sideless tank top, workout shorts, and running shoes. She looked… sad and happy at the same time somehow.

"I understand, Mother-Shepard. While it is wrong for the group to determine the worthiness of the individual, it is equally wrong for the individual to demand from the group; especially when that demand places the group in danger." She looked up at Jane and Garrus. "I am glad to have known you both. For however long we were, are or will be together, in your eyes **I am**."

Jane set her face in a stern look, "Now look here young lady; weren't you listening to me when I said trading lives is unacceptable?" Jahenne asked as she wagged her finger back and forth; "You may be illegal, but I did some thinking; and found a loophole."

Jane swept her Poncho aside again, and knelt down in front of the AI with a smile. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a slip of paper, "Eve… do you know what this is?" She held it in front of the pedestal as the Girl looked at the paper.

Eve's holographic eyes widened as she processed it, while Jane continued; "This is an adoption form for a minor. Seeing as you're only a few days old, and have the appearance of a fourteen year old; I can legally adopt you as a minor who needs the care of an adult. I've looked it over, there are no articles or clauses that excludes AI from this bill; probably because it was written before AI were even a thought, and no one ever bothered to amend it but-"

Jane stopped, as Eves hologram disappeared; and then reappeared in front of the console.

Only now she was a full sized regular looking, albeit semi-transparent, teenaged girl; still wearing the same clothes as her mini-version and everything. Jane worked her jaw up and down as she looked down on the still shorter teenaged AI; before casting a stunned look at Garrus. That stunned look turned to annoyance as she saw that Garrus was totally unsurprised and was actually laughing at her.

"Serves you right for sneaking up on me; although there's _one _more detail. Eve?"

Jane was about to call Garrus on his sass, when she felt something: weight and encircling pressure, as if...

She looked down and had to fight back tears, as Eve hugged her. She tentatively returned the hug, and upon feeling resistance she squeezed and rested her head on top of her soon to be daughter's. Her eyes snapped open and locked onto Garrus', though she never let go. "Explanation. Now."

He chuckled and stepped towards the two. "Just the miracle of my love for you." Jane's expression didn't shift at all. "Alright, my love for you and my certification in Tech-Armor projector systems." He pointed to a series of glowing nodes around the room. "Right now, she's limited to this room, but with the right supplies and enough time, we should be able to give you," he tussled Eve's 'hair', "the run of the ship."

His own eyes softened as he looked at Jane and Eve. "I never said it, but the fact that we could never have children always bugged me. Maybe it's that 'utilitarian collectivist' stuff Eve was talking about, but there was always a part of me that was waiting for you to decide it was time for a family, and that would be the end of _us._ This was my chance to give you a daughter."

"And best of all, I can actually sign the paper instead of having one of you forge a signature." Eve exclaimed happily, breaking the hug and practically jumping up and down on her 'toes'. "Oh my God, is that what a 'hug' feels like? It felt great! Let me try it with you!" She exclaimed, rushing forward and practically tackling Garrus to the floor.

The Turian buzzed in surprise as the two fell to the deck, and Jane laughed as her family took shape. Whatever the outcome as far as command was concerned, this was the greatest victory of her life.

"Eve," the holographic child looked up at her 'mother', "I want to teach you a special human tradition, are you ready?"

She nodded while Garrus buzzed. "What are you up to Jane?"

Jahenne grinned. "Dog-pile!"

"Oof! Careful there; I'm still recovering!"

"Shut up and take it like Turian."

* * *

After sorting everything out with Garrus and Eve, Jane next walked into the hangar bay; where the remaining non-injured personnel of 1-4-1 all sat around, cleaning and repairing their gear. The atmosphere was tense and cold; one that Jahenne had seen many times in her life, that of a failed mission.

She had actually been in a rather good mood, after getting Eve's signature for the adoption papers and leaving her to discuss more philosophical questions with her 'dad'; but she felt that good cheer evaporate the moment she caught sight of everyone's mood.

Colt and Archer were quietly talking to each other in their own corner of the room; disassembling and cleaning their weapons as well as August's and Phil's, since they were still in the medbay.

Ashley sat with Aethyta, Kirrahe, and Shiala, also deep in a conversation of some kind as they cleaned their own gear.

Liara seemed to be the worst off; she just sat in a corner as she held her temples. It looked like she was shell shocked, and little wonder either; considering the fact that she was a rookie, and had gone through perhaps one of the worst case scenarios for a first mission.

Jane noted both Shiala and Aethyta casting concerned looks at Liara, but neither moved to go help her. _A cultural thing probably_, Jane mused; and decided that she would deal with Liara first. As she walked up to the young woman, she asked; "Are you alright?"

The Asari flinched slightly in response, looking up at the Commander as she did so.

Liara quickly calmed once she realized that it was only Shepard; though neither noticed Aethyta scoot away from her group and shuffle closer to Liara. Not enough to be very noticeable or withdraw herself from her current conversation; but she didn't check the motion.

Liara swallowed, and looked back down at her feet as she thought of a response. "I thought I would be... helpful, useful even for your endeavour. I saw how effective you were during my rescue, and I thought to pay you back in some small way," she curled up and hugged her knees, "but in the end I was just a burden; just a useless _Maiden_ with delusions of grandeur and adventure. So many were hurt because I couldn't do anything!" She began shivering as tears leaked from eyes pinched shut.

Jane sighed and sat down next to her, and shared a look with Aethyta; the Matriarch looked like she desperately wanted to come over and help, but couldn't seem to bring herself to move. "On the contrary Liara, you may have saved our lives." Jane replied with a small smile, resting a hand on the woman's shoulder.

Liara blinked while Jane continued; "You were caught completely off guard when the wolves disabled our biotics and eezo tech. Everyone was; August was the only one in our group that had a working weapon, and that Wolf made sure to take care of that." Jane leaned back against the bulkhead and sighed, "When your biotic abilities came back you stopped the Wolf Bastard from killing Fon and Kal. You stopped him from shooting me in the head the first time. You did a lot better than you think you did."

Jane gave a grim smile as the Asari thought it over; "Now you could definitely use some work; but you are _not _a failure." Jane knew she sounded maternal at the moment; and the irony was not lost on her. _May as well get some practice for Eve's sake._ She thought to herself; before returning her attention to Liara in anticipation of the young Maiden's response.

When none was forthcoming, Jane glared at Aethyta; _Take care of your daughter NOW._ It took tremendous fortitude not to growl when the _Matriarch_, Liara's _Father_ who was older than modern Western Democracy, shrank back. _Oh no you don't!_

She turned back to the distraught maiden beside her. "Look, Liara, I know it's hard to imagine bouncing back from a hit like this. And you're an intellectual, not a stoic warrior of legend, so trying to compare yourself to professional soldiers is not reasonable.

"But don't take my word for it." She gently grasped Liara's hand and waited until she looked up at Jane. "Matriarch Aethyta has been alive longer than the Protestant Reformation." She and Liara both looked at Aethyta who glared daggers at Jane for a split second before schooling her features. "She's fought more battles than anyone here other than Wrex, and I'll lay odds she lost some of them; isn't that right?" She matched Aethyta's look with her own cold steel smile.

The Matriarch sighed heavily, "Yes… I lost a great deal many of them; many through simple trickery or from my enemies having superior experience, or from better technology."

The three Asari and the Commander all looked down in thought; "I never would have thought that a bunch of backwards primitive religious soldiers would be able to develop a way to disable _biotics_." Aethyta said sadly. "Much less able to disable Element Zero based weaponry. And these 'Wolves'... I have never faced anything like them. That Giant human in particular…"

Liara nodded faintly. "I've heard them refer to him as 'The Chechen', though I'm not sure of the significance."

Jane grimaced, "Chechnya is a place notorious for its massive distrust of outsiders and producing some of the finest warriors on Earth. They were among the few able to resist the Soviets occupation, and later the Russian Federation's attempts to conquer them. That Giant is probably a veteran of the numerous proxy wars between Chechnya and the Russian Federation." She noted, rubbing the side of her head.

"A warrior born into war, then. Age and experience can often falter in the face of such people. How else could an Asari Commando fall in battle then to any but an equally aged Krogan, _Little Wing_?" Aethyta's eyes widened imperceptibly at her slip of the tongue.

Any hopes Aethyta had that Liara was too distracted to notice were dashed when the Maiden looked oddly at that. "Only my mother has ever called me that."

Jane smiled slightly as Aethyta gave her a look that practically begged her for help; but Jane just gave her a smile, and walked over to Ashley, Kirrahe, Colt, and Archer, the four of them having clustered together while Shiala and Aethyta walked over to talk with Liara.

Kirrahe was mostly keeping to himself, since he was writing a report to the STG about the Wolves new Powered Armor and the 'Anti-Biotics Grenade' that Muhandis and The Chechan had deployed before their battle had begun in earnest.

Jane turned her main attention to the other three humans, "Are you all okay?"

Ash nodded, while Colt and Archer ignored her in favor of cleaning their rifles; "I'm good Ell Cee; but those Wolves are something else. They picked us apart like an old woollen blanket; even against those Batarians, I've never felt so hopelessly outclassed."

"Quite impressive technology for a supposedly 'underdeveloped' system of colonies." Kirrahe absently commented without looking up. "Securing the tactical suit from the combatant in the Queen's containment area is the only positive. If we can study it, we can determine any exploitable design flaws, or at least try to mitigate it's advantages over our own technology base."

Archer snorted while Colt remained unusually silent; "Fat chance of that; knowing how the Wolve's work, these things were unstable prototypes that will be completely different from the final product. How's the boss and Phil by the way?" She asked.

"He'll be fine by the time we reach Luna, same with Phil; and what do you mean by the fact that these things are 'prototypes'? Why would the Wolves take something untested out into the field?" Jahenne asked, almost demanded.

Colt piped up, sounding very tired and subdued; "They don't have the luxury of rigorous testing for most of their experimental tech. Taking it into combat _is _their way of testing equipment. If it works and doesn't blow up in their face, it goes into mass production; but specialized tech like those 'Anti-Biotic Grenades'?" He fell silent to let the thought stew in their heads.

Jane considered the Ghosts in front of her for a moment. "Both of you, walk with me." There was no room in her tone for debate as she turned and headed out of the bay.

There was a pair of loud grunts as the two Ghosts stood up from where they were seated; and the two had to jog for a brief moment to keep up with the Commander, as she set a brisk pace. Once they were out of the hanger bay, she rounded towards the briefing room; the Army Ghosts clearly uneasy as they followed her.

The second they entered the briefing room, and once the doors closed behind them; Jane whirled around on the two Army spooks with fire in her eyes. "I assume you understand that this is a military ship, and as such there is a chain of command that starts with me, and _then_ everyone else?"

Both Ghosts snapped to attention on instinct; "Yes ma'am." both chorused.

"Then I'm never going to be blindsided by the technical capabilities of any forces you are specifically familiar with, thus endangering the lives of those under my command again, correct?"

"Of course Ma'am!" They snapped, both looking calm and stoic; they may as well have been made of stone as far as Jane was concerned.

"Good." She walked to the head of the table and sat, motioning for them to also sit. "You will tell me _everything _there is to know about EA; major active players, past tactics and strategies, favorite flavor of ice cream, all of it. Make no mistake, I am the _only _person on this ship with a guaranteed 'Need-to-Know'. So you will fill me in, or I will stuff you in a life-bubble and kick all four of you out over Armstrong city and let you _walk_ home. Am I clear?"

"Crystal Ma'am." Archer replied this time, while Colt just gave a nod.

"Good… then let's get started."

* * *

Jane sat in Eve's AI core even as the kid sat across from her holding her cards.

Jane grimaced, "I still can't believe that you're having no problems dealing with that rogue VI even as you sit here playing 'go fish' of all things." She admitted.

Eve gave her a slightly hurt look, "You don't trust me mom?"

"Of course I do." Jane replied with a smile, "But I'm just worried about Garrus's team is all. They still have to go in and keep up the illusion that they handled the VI themselves."

Eve gave a relieved smile, then a thought seemed to cross her face; "Mom, do you want to watch Dad lead the mission from my point of view?" She asked.

"I would love to Eve; go ahead and pull it up." Jane replied, smiling brightly as she shifted her chair over beside Eve's; drawing her 'daughter' into a one armed hug, even as Eve pulled up a flat screen showing the away team breaching the main VI conduit bunker.

Garrus, Colt, Archer, Williams, Kirrahe, and Tali all filed into the room; and Eve tracked them all throughout it.

The group quickly began to tear through the VI controlled drones, although Eve still seemed rather upset about it; "What's wrong there kiddo?" Jane finally asked.

"I wish I could shut down those drones so the other wouldn't have to put themselves in danger." The AI replied sadly, looking down at her feet. "The only reason they're out there is so that I don't have to expose myself."

"Hey! None of that now kiddo, your father and I signed on for this; and quite frankly I'm still not okay with you sticking your neck out like this. We'd make very crappy parents if we put you in danger intentionally." Jane replied sternly, ruffling Eve's hair as she did so.

Eve looked wistfully at the screen like her mother. "I wonder if she could have turned out like me?"

"She?" Jane asked, looking at the screen in confusion as Kirrahe and Tali hacked the shields surrounding the VI core, while Colt planted explosives on them; Archer and Garrus covering them from the security and the combat drones. "What do you mean by that Eve?" she asked, absently checking her omnitool to see a message from Chakwas telling her that Lee and Phil were due to be discharged in an hour.

The last two to be discharged after their injuries on the ill-fated Noveria mission.

"The Luna VI; I wonder if she could have been like me, or if we would be different people?"

"Ah…" Shepard leaned back in her chair and carefully thought over her answer; "Well for one thing, I think they would have been a different person entirely. Maybe they wouldn't even be a girl like you; maybe they would have been a guy." Jane smirked, "At that point I would have insisted on you changing your apparel into something more covering, and Garrus would have to scare him into submission."

"No way!" Eve pouted. "The Moon has, in all cultures in history, always been associated with the feminine aspect. She'd _have _to be a girl!"

Jane chuckled, "Well... you don't know; Novaria is a russian name, and Russians are notable for being a male centric society. By that logic you should be a boy Eve." She smiled as the AI thought it over.

"Nope," Eve crossed her arms over her chest, "cause then I wouldn't be Eve, and," she sagged slightly, "and then maybe you wouldn't have liked me or saved me."

Jane dropped her joking demeanor and pulled Eve into a tight hug; "Sweetie, I would have saved you no matter what. It's like I told your dad, and what you told him; you may be an AI, but you act and think very human, and to humans all lives matter."

Eve returned the hug, "What are you going to be doing once we get to Earth?" She asked with her face still stuffed in Jahenne's shoulder.

Jane's face fell slightly as she remembered that Eve would be stuck on the ship with only Presley and Joker for company; as they were the only two that seemed to have _both_ the time _and_ the inclination to talk to her. She could theoretically leave the ship; though she sincerely doubted that August's home had a VI core big enough to house Eve's consciousness.

"We'll report to Headquarters for debrief, hand over the Armor and weapons systems we saved from the Wolves to the eggheads; and then go tour St. Mary's City. It'll be boring, especially going to August's house; it'll be like going to a ball or something like that." Jane said to try and reassure Eve that she wouldn't enjoy herself without the girl.

And if she was honest with herself, she wouldn't; only a week together, and Jane felt like she was experiencing physical pain at the prospect of leaving Eve behind. Fon and Garrus had already strung up more Emitters in the CIC and cockpit at least, so Eve could go there if she got lonely.

That wasn't a comfort for Jane though, since Eve's holographic eyes began to water; and the AI pulled up another screen, replacing what was going on back at the facility as the away team was mostly wrapped up by this point. Eve looked Jane right in the eyes, and Jahenne could feel her own eyes water slightly; "What about all the stuff Mr. Lee's been planning? A tour of the Maryland Ark and the Maryland Dove? A bunch of messages to his Foster Brother and his girlfriend talking about 'preparing for guests'? He is the Co-owner of the Red Hawk-Blue Dog Saloon; their food is excellent apparently." Jane gave the girl a soft smile as she kept rambling about all the things that the group had planned for vacation.

She had hacked into August's messages in the blink of an eye; it was something to be proud of, if Jane was honest with herself. But Eve's final sentence was what snapped Jane back to the moment; "And you said Balls are boring, this one looked fun!" Eve exclaimed, sounding exactly like the whiny teenager she was; even as she pulled up a news report with video.

"_With continuing coverage of the fallout of last week's corporate scandal, where Private Military Contractors owned and operated by Devlon Industries attempted an armed robbery of the Key Note Dinner following a week long arms symposium and demonstration."_

Jane felt her blood go cold, even as Eve continued talking about how fun it looked; and how boring it was going to be in Normandy. "Eve; listen to me right now."

Eve stopped talking and looked at her mother with wide eyes; it was the first time she had heard Jane take her 'commander' tone with her. Jane put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and gave her a very stern look. "One… You are to tell _no one_. Especially not Mr. Lee. Do you understand?" She asked.

"W-why mom?" She stammered.

"Eve… please; if not for me than for the rest of the crew so they don't have their vacation spoiled." Jane said, not losing her stern air.

"I… Okay…" Eve looked down sulkily, her red hair falling in front of her face. Jane pulled her into another hug; brushing the girls 'hair' out of her 'face'.

Jane sighed as, for a moment, she wondered if her own mother had ever felt this way. "That Ball wasn't fun. I'm sure it sounded exciting; but if there were news reports about the day we met, I'm sure they'd sound exciting too." She looked at the news feed as several people were brought out on stretchers. "People were hurt that night, and that's never fun." She tensed for a moment as a Quarian in a formal _Seemas_ and an Asari in what passed for a dress to them, were shown helping wheel a familiar looking human male into an ambulance.

She shook her head. _That would just be too coincidental._

"Tell you what, we can bring Fyodor, Fon, and San down here to help you out; how does that sound?" Jane had to fight down a grin as she noticed Eve's hologram turn a little red at the cheeks at the mention of San's name. _Aw… My little girl already has her first crush._ She thought to herself.

"T-that would be great!" Eve replied.

"Well wait here, I'll go get them."

* * *

I shrugged on my old Leather Jacket, and made sure my Long Sleeve Button-Down Denim Shirt was tucked into my khaki work pants; my wool socks and working boots mostly hidden under them.

I put on my brown stetson fedora, and wiped off my glasses.

"Hello Dr. Jones, what can we do for you?" Colt asked next to me, a shit eating grin on his face.

As if he was one to talk, since he was dressed the same way; although his hat was black, his jacket was denim and fur-lined, and he wore a flannel as opposed to a denim shirt. I just rolled my eyes and pulled up my Duffle bag, cracking my neck as I did so; "Yeah, you can shut your mouth and be on your best behavior. Or else I'll tell your parents you were misbehaving on another field trip." I finally replied sarcastically.

"Oh no! Then they won't sign my permission slips anymore!" Colt gasped dramatically.

I could practically hear Archer and Phil rolling their eyes beside us; while the rest of 1-4-1 chuckled or looked at us like we were crazy. As the Shuttle approached Dulles, I grabbed a hold of the nearby hand grip; feeling us descending into the atmosphere.

"Oi! August, you said there was going to be a bus to pick us up?" I heard Wrex shout, the Krogan sounding bored for the most part.

"Yeah that's right, pretty big one too; since it can hold all of us." I replied over my shoulder.

I saw San shift uncomfortably, "No disrespect intended Pilgrim Lee; but why are we taking this _bus_ over land rather than fly to your home? And are you sure you can fit all of us there?" he asked meekly.

I saw all ten Quarians nod together except Kal, who merely gave me an unreadable look behind his visor. "Oh I'm sure I can host all y'all; provided some of you don't mind sharing rooms or sleeping on the floor in some cases. As for the Bus… well I don't have a place for you guys to land; and Maryland is a place best enjoyed from the ground." I replied, even as I felt the Shuttle finally touch the ground.

Everyone except Wrex and the Quarians were in civilian clothing; including Garrus to my surprise. I was glad to see they had all taken my advice to dress in layers; as it was currently -3.33 degrees celsius, with light flurries on top of five inches of snow.

Everyone except Phil and Jane balked at the blast of wind while I just smiled.

"_Kheelah!_ It's even colder than the Citadel!" Tali exclaimed.

"This is actually rather average Ms. Zorah; coldest winter I remember was when I was a kid. It was around -17.7 degrees with about a meter's worth of snow on the ground. Most of this snow comes from the Atlantic or from the Canadian Arctic; but the big cold snaps come when the cold weather from both Canada _and_ the Atlantic clash in the Mid-East Coast." I explained with a large smile on my face, breathing in the flurry of snow.

It was a much colder climate than my universe, as while it stayed below freezing; it tended to only snow in February, and only a few times during the month with only a few inches each time. The tradeoff of course was that the summer months were even more extreme, hanging around 100 degrees during the July and August months.

Maryland was one of those places that was nowhere special, beyond being a gateway to everywhere else that was special. And that Included the weather; Fall and Spring being rather nice, hanging around 60 to 80 respectively.

Grinning as I spotted the modified Greyhound waiting for us, I pointed; "Well grab your stuff guys, and head to the Bus; I'll be driving."

Wrex just grunted, "So long as you're better than Shepard; I don't care."

* * *

San just gripped his chair in terror as Lee snapped, "Come on you idiots! You have a turn signal for a reason!"

The absurdly spacious _bus_ as the humans called it, was incredibly unwieldy; not helped by the fact that Pilgrim Lee seemed to deem all the other drivers on the road 'idiots'. Though San did have to admit, stopping in the middle of the road to 'change lanes' was pretty stupid. Of course, so was using this monstrous land vehicle, but one didn't challenge a Ship's hospitality simply because you didn't understand the customs.

"Seriously? I'm a five ton bus, and you're a half ton Jaguar! Do you _want _me to make roadkill out of you?!" Lee reiterated.

"How am I a worse driver than you?" Shepard grumbled loudly, even as the snow covered trees and empty fields flashed by the windows.

"Because at least he can drive straight Skipper; and he actually tries to avoid obstacles." Ashley Williams piped up, actually looking very comfortable.

In fact, everyone except his fellow Pilgrims looked comfortable; _perhaps the Captains driving has desensitized them_. San thought idly; even as Lee began to slow down.

"Alright guys, we're coming up on the Wicomico River; Go ahead and take a look guys, and enjoy the view." Lee said from up front, grinning in spite of the fact that he was wearing a rather ridiculous looking, in Sans view anyway, broad brimmed hat.

San decided to take his advice, as did most of the Quarians; and looked out the left window, thankful that the snow had let up and Earth's star had come out.

Everything was buried in white, like the frost buildup on coolant pipes. The small river they were crossing over was frozen over with Ice; the star glinting off of the glass like surface. Along both sides of the sheet on one side of the bridge were bare grey and brown branched spikes with more frost clinging to them, while on the other side of the bridge there was almost nothing. A few small groups of people were clustered on top of the river, either grouped around small machines or going in and out of small structures with smoke coming out of them.

San pointed as they crossed the span. "What are they doing? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Ice fishing." Ashley piped up, strangely convivial compared to her normal taciturn self. "My grandfather used to take me out on lake Chaffee to Ice fish for Silver-Eel."

"Here they try to get Rockfish; the damned things are invasive. State government actually puts a bounty on them; and they taste delicious, I might add." Lee added over his shoulder.

They crossed the bridge onto a wide floodplain towards a small hill lined with more brown and grey spiked poles leading up to a wide red and white structure. The bus pulled around a circle and parked in front of a large stone staircase leading up to a platform flanked by white stone columns.

The group quickly disembarked and trudged through the snow towards the large porch.

"What are these pillars made of?" Liara asked, shivering from the wind. Even though the 'flurries' had stopped, it was still pretty cold.

"Marble I think; but I'm not really sure." Lee replied, even as he dug into his pocket and pulled out some metal keys.

San and the other Quarians actually exchanged some looks at the notion of using something like a metal lock to keep your door shut. Lee began jiggling the lock, grumbling under his breath; "I hate it when it gets this cold, because then the grease on the lock starts to freeze; last time that happened, I actually had to break a window to get inside. That wasn't fun explaining to the police that I broke into my own mansion."

This prompted a few laughs from everyone else, just as Lee opened the door.

A yellow blur followed by a black, tan, and white blur tackled the Human to the ground. San and everyone else hopped back in surprise; until Ashley, Shepard, and Archer all squealed in happiness.

"Oh my God! Puppy!" Ashley exclaimed.

Lee just lay on his back groaning; "Hey Shadow… Hey Sky… good to see both of you…" before finally pushing the two Varren like animals off of him. The two animals' tails were wagging back and forth so fast that they were literal blurs.

"More dogs!" Shepard pointed happily, to San's amazement as he had never seen the Captain look so happy before.

He followed the commander's finger to see two more of these 'dogs'; one that was vaguely Red-Brown in color, the other being vaguely White-Light Blue-Black in color. Both 'dogs' stared at the group of humans and Aliens with something akin to suspicion; until Pilgrim Lee made that whistling noise humans were capable of.

Both of the animals floppy ears perked up, and their tails started wagging as well; "C'mon Red, Blue! Give your old man a hug." Lee said with a grin from where he now sat.

San and the other Quarians, really all Quarians, had long since accepted that other species had little to no concern about hygiene. They ate food that was barely sterilized, usually with their bare hands or with tools that had been sitting in open air. They would lay exposed skin on random surfaces and then touch their faces, and generally didn't give any thought to what might be in the environment around them.

The fact that all four of these 'dogs' were _licking_ his face was enough to cause all the Quarians to cringe. This was made all the stranger when the Commander and Gunny Williams knelt down and allowed the _dogs_ to do the same to them. As far as San was concerned, Jane and Ashley might as well have allowed Pilgrim Lee to lick them.

Then the Brown-Red 'Dog' turned to San, and padded forward while tilting its head.

"Er… Pilgrim Lee… what kind of breed of Varren is this?" Tali asked timidly, as the White-Blue-Black one did the same with her; San took a step back as the tail started wagging faster.

Did that mean it was getting ready to attack him?

"They're not Varren, they're Dogs!" Ashley replied incredulously.

"Yes, and they are much friendlier than Varren." Archer added, petting the Yellow furred one.

Lee just grinned as he stood up, "Allow me to introduce you to my dogs; this is Sky, she is a Golden Retriever, and a gift to my girlfriend." He pointed to the Yellow-Gold one.

The dog perked its ears up at the mention of its name, but then Archer scratched behind its ears; and the dog returned its attention to her.

Lee then pointed to the one being petted by Ashley and Shepard; "That one is Shadow, a Agouti Siberian Husky; she was a gift for my daughter."

The Red-Brown one had finally reached San; and Lee pointed to it, "That is Red, He's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever; now unlike the other two, he's a working dog. His job is to fetch any waterfowl that the farmhands kill; and watch over the chickens."

San froze for a moment; this animal was supposed to assist humans in, what, purging their lands of dangerous animals? He reviewed his, admittedly limited, human lexicon, and while he couldn't find 'Wildfowl', he did find 'wild': untamed or dangerous, and 'foul': highly unpleasant or particularly unsanitary. He glanced down at the 'Retriever' nudging his hand with its nose. Maybe humans weren't so crazy after all, if they purpose-bred animals to help them keep their lands free of these 'wild-foul'.

Lee smiled as San reluctantly began petting Red; and he pointed to the last dog, "This is Blue, he is an Australian Shepherd; and his job is to herd the sheep and protect them in case any predators decide to attack them."

Lia suddenly tensed up. "Predators? What kind of predators?" She pulled Fyodor closer to her side, while looking around. "I thought this was a developed world."

Lee immediately held his hands up; "Calm down there Lia; yes Earth is a developed world, but still _really_ dangerous in many places if you are not careful. Now the predators here are almost exclusively a threat to livestock since they're scared of humans. Wolves, Coyotes, Coywolves which are Wolf-Coyote hybrids, Foxes, even a Mountain Lion if rumours are to be believed."

He grimaced, "Now while they are normally afraid of humans… If they are rabid, that's _really_ bad." All the Aliens blinked as _all _the humans shuddered at the mention of this 'rabies'.

Garrus buzzed in confusion. "What's 'rabid'?" He looked to Jane. "Is it like mating season for some animals? I know there are a number of livestock breeds on our colonies that can get very dangerous during the Rut."

Shepard looked at the group with some concern, and a little chagrin as if she had forgotten an important detail in a mission brief. "No, it's a virus that attacks the nervous system. It's transmitted between animals, including humans, through saliva in bites." She looked at the aliens in the group. "It's just... one of those things you grow up learning on Earth and her colonies; if you see an animal staggering around like it's drunk and frothing at the mouth, you either shoot it or get away from it because you _don't _want to get bitten."

Archer held up her hand to forestall the panic that San could already feel overtaking his mind; "Don't worry; we don't even know if it's transmittable outside of Earth-native species. Besides, August has all the dogs vaccinated so the Rabies doesn't immediately debilitate and kill them; and most of the animals that can carry it are in hibernation for the winter."

Lee coughed, "Uh... about that." Everyone looked at him, and he gave Archer a pointed look; "Ziva told me a couple weeks ago… Krogan can get it, and it is just as fatal to them as it is to humans. The virus had already reached his brain, and there was nothing they could do except make him comfortable and restrain him as best they could."

Most everyone looked at Wrex in concern, though the ancient Battlemaster simply looked... impressed. "And here I thought the most dangerous thing from this rock was you lot. If you've got a bug that can get past our immune reaction, _and_ our regeneration capabilities; and you humans survived long enough to make it to space, then that's quite the testimonial."

Lee looked around at the group "In any case, Archer is right in that all the most aggressive animals rest during the winter since they can't get much food; and rabies is most potent during the heat of the summer months, So you guys don't really have to worry about that." Then his face turned serious, "But if _any _of you see an animal acting like how Shepard described it; _run_ and come tell us."

Everyone was subdued, until Colt clapped his hands as his grin returned to his face; "Right! Let's stop thinking about all this doom and gloom stuff and go inside. I'm freezing my butt off!"

Lee nodded and stepped inside, whistling again for his dogs to follow him.

The group entered the house, San cautiously petting the one called 'Sky' as he did so; It was… Spacious to say the least. Everything was an odd but strangely organic mix of wood and stone, with arched ceilings and winding stair cases. Aside from the floor itself, he had yet to see one straight line. His suit's sensors picked up smoke, and he was about to call out an alarm to the others when he noticed all the humans sniffing the air and smiling pleasantly.

"Hickory and oak in your fireplace? Now you're just showing off." Shepard cracked her first smile at Pilgrim Lee in days.

Lee ignored her and stepped farther inside the house. "Honey?! I'm home with our guests." Lee called out, even as his dogs ran past him and scattered into different sections of the building.

"_Are you now? Johnny says he needs a few more hours to get all the takeout food ready for delivery."_ A woman's voice called back.

San blinked, and he noticed all of the other Quarians have a similar reaction. Lee's bondmates accent was… very familiar sounding to say the least; though San shrugged it off as a coincidence. Phil's Russian Accent was very similar to a northern _Kheelish _accent; so this woman was probably from the same area.

Lee smiled and gestured for everyone to file in, "Take a seat." He said, pointing to one of the many rooms in the building; the room being filled with chairs every which way, all facing towards a giant holo-screen.

Everyone did so, though Wrex remained standing; looking at a row of paintings that each showed human male of some kind, all of whom bore a slight resemblance to each other.

San sat down in one of the chairs as Mr. Lee called back; "That's good honey, where are you?"

"_In the Kitchen! When you're done seating our guests you need to help June with her English homework. Her English… and this is the girl who is a straight A student in Math and Engineering; and is at least two grades ahead in her studies."_ Lee's bondmate replied, sounding like she was getting closer.

"About that dear, uh… Well we have a few more guests than I initially estimated we would." Lee replied, grimacing visibly as he looked at the twenty other people all squeezed together in the room.

San had to fight down a burst of laughter at seeing the smirk Shepard gave Lee.

"_More guests? August, surely you must be _exagge...rate...ing..." the woman trailed off as she rounded the corner and took in the rest of the room.

San's jaw was on the bottom of his helmet; as were all the other Quarians and at least half of the people in the room. Shepard and Garrus were both laughing; while Phil, Colt, and Archer all smiled and stood up, walking over to the Quarian Woman standing in the doorway.

A _Maskless, Suitless _Quarian woman; wearing a dress mixed with a _Realk _and _Seemas_, overtop which she wore a white 'Doctors Coat' like what Dr. Chakwas wore. Her _Realk _and _Seemas_ were a deep Blue, with Silver leaf patterns on them; her skin was Grey-Light Purple, and her hair was black and wavy.

The bottom half of her face was covered by her _Seemas_, and her hood was up; leaving only a really clear view of her face from the nose up. Still, it was more flesh than most Quarians saw outside of the closest family members, or under the direst of circumstances.

"Hey Ziva! Nice dress, were you expecting this to be a more formal affair darlin'?" Colt asked with a large smile.

"Oh be nice Colt!" Archer exclaimed, swatting his arm; before giving a soft smile and taking the Quarians hands, "It's good to see ya sister. How have things been at Johns Hopkins; I assume you just got back since you're wearing your Doctors Jacket."

"V-very good; I've been helping a colleague by consulting over at Walter Reed with a particular 'problem patient'," she air-quoted while giving Lee a hooded look, "but otherwise good. I will say I was not expecting this many guests; you were quite right about that dear... for once." Ziva replied, sweeping her eyes over the group.

San had to resist the urge to look away as she swept her gaze across the room to the rest of the Quarians.

Alenko seemed to break out of his shock, "This… this must be an Agent of some kind." He finally said, seemingly half dazed. One of the dogs came up, snuffling at his limp hand. He twitched slightly at the damp, cold nose on his palm. "Special Agency dogs, security trained dogs."

Fyodor jumped up from where he was sitting next to Lia; "Hi Miss! Mr. Lee said that you were the one that made the cure!" He exclaimed happily. That seemed to break everyone out of their stupor.

"Fyodor!" Lia exclaimed.

"No, no! It's fine." Ziva exclaimed, before taking a breath; and she smiled. San could tell by the fact that her eyes crinkled slightly as she talked, "I did make the cure for the Quarian Immune system. I have more stored here, just in case I came across any that needed it." She explained, before she paused at hearing the sound of thudding footsteps.

"Oh boy, incoming." Lee exclaimed, practically drifting out of the room as San heard a voice shout; _"Papa?!" _Everyone turned to look; just in time for a little Quarian Girl about five or six years old, a little younger than Fyodor, came sprinting down the stairs.

Major Lee had a massive grin on his face as he scooped the girl up in a hug; spinning her around as the girl laughed happily.

She was wearing a pair of loose human 'jeans', and a 'hoodie'; and she had Grey-Light Purple Skin with wavy Black hair.

"That is… a smaller agent…" Ashley Williams commented weakly as she stared.

Kal blinked at the family in front of him, for that's exactly what they were. "How long have you had this cure?" There was suspicion and slight accusation in his voice.

Ziva frowned and glared heavily at the Sergeant; who immediately cringed away from her piercing stare. San would have laughed if he was not similarly intimidated, the human saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' immediately coming to his mind.

"Only since just before the Citadel attacks Mister...?" Ziva asked, raising an eyebrow; the action still amazing San, even if he could only still see the top half of her face.

"Sergeant Kal'Reegar…" He replied uncertainly.

"Well... If you would be so kind as to keep that kind of poisonous suspicion out of this house; that would be great Sergeant. I have no qualms about kicking you out to make you sleep on the porch dog houses with Red and Blue while they watch over the livestock." Ziva replied, jutting her chin outwards.

Both Fyodor and the as yet unnamed daughter of the Major shrank back from the tense emotions the Clan elders were projecting. San was tempted to find another part of the house to wait in, or even go back outside; his suit was vacuum rated, what was a little frost?

"June, perhaps you could show Fyodor your room and some of the games you have; perhaps even that drone you've been working on?" The major suggested.

"Okay Papa!" June exclaimed, while Fyodor gave Lia an uncertain look.

Lia only nodded before turning her attention back to the standoff; and Fyodor practically sprinted out of the room and up the stairs with June.

There was a long tense silence, until Wrex broke it by laughing deeply; while Aethyta and Shiala chuckled along with the Krogan battlemaster. "Ah… you females never fail to surprise me."

* * *

**Pilot A/N: To join the discord, simply go to my profile for the link; I try to keep it updated.**

**Now then, on to the contents of this chapter; first of is 1-4-1 meeting Ziva and June, and more importantly, seeing that Ziva's cure (which I referenced all the way back in chapter 15) does in fact work as advertised. **

**I admit, I wanted this little "Avengers 2 Moment" for a while now; and it was nice to have it happen.**

**Now this chapter is more than just "meet the family"; It's also where the rest of the team will be rebuilding/building their trust in the Major and each other.**

**And to answer a review left last chapter regarding Jane being pissed about the cure and not the AI; she was pissed because August kept that from her, though she does accept his explanation here.**

**Eve having a body is something of a reference to my old story "A House Divided Amongst Itself"; It's not very good even if it has good moments in it. And to those fans still waiting on it, I am still working on the rework; but it has **_**low **_**priority for me, and just be aware that it will be pretty different from the original.**

**As to what Eve looks like, she's just a 14-15 year old version of Jane; and with a Sapphire Blue aura around her because of the Eezo generators allowing her to interact with the world.**

**You have any thoughts Ian?**

**Ian A/N: As a lifelong tabletop gamer, I have always appreciated the idea that 'Lawful Good does not mean Lawful Nice'. Shepard comes out of the last chapter feeling both defeated and betrayed. Were this the 'Renegade' Shepard, we might expect some old fashioned 'Wall-to-Wall Counseling'. Instead, she takes the time to visit with her troops, to rebuild their self esteem; and yes, to confront those pesky Spooks who insist on keeping things from her. She is their commander, and feels it's high time to remind them of that.**

**Eve may seem out of place to some readers citing 'Citadel Law'. From our creative perspective, as well as the anecdotal evidence from in game, the law prohibits the **_**intentional creation**_** of AI, not it's existence. This gives Jane the legal wiggle room to protect an innocent sapient mind as the only true victory in the unfortunate events of Noveria. **

**The issue of "AI Creation vs. AI Existence" regarding Citadel legal authority and enforcement will come up later, so keep on reading. **

**Pilot: With that said, while this story tends to never have a decent backlog; we do have a slight one, and next Friday will be the next chapter. This next one has no action in it, but it does have a lot of heartwarming moments; and a few romantic ones.**

**Half Life: Entanglement does have a similar upload schedule, one chapter every wednesday at 11 AM EST. And Unlike most Half Life-Mass Effect Crossovers, or just Half Life Fanfics in general, this one has no intention of quietly dying.**

**Alright, Leave a review and tell us what you guys think.**

**Check out Half Life: Entanglement while you wait for the next chapter.**

**Check my profile for the link to join the discord.**

**A TV Tropes page for either would be greatly appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	23. Vacation

Tali stared at her face.

Lavender colored skin, Violet hair, and a modestly pretty face stared back at her. It was a blend of faces she had seen in her family's holo-journal: her grandmother's nose, her father's skin tone, her mother's hair. It was something that had been denied her people for so long, and now it was hers. Her people would be freed from their suits in a matter of months, and all for the asking of an alliance that benefited them more than it did the SA.

_KnockKnockKnock…_

Tali flinched, and looked at the door; and quickly wrapped her new _Seemas_ around her neck and flipped up its hood.

"Madam 'Zorah… Are you ready to go? If you are decent that is." She heard Ziva ask from outside.

Tali swallowed heavily, "Yes… yes of course." Tali replied. She was passably familiar with most of the people from the Normandy, and it was thanks to Ziva'_Onyeh_ that her people would all soon be free of their wretched lot, but she was insisting they have a, 'girls day out'. In public, where everyone would see her.

Only the ship's surgeon back home on the Rayya had seen her without her suit since she was old enough to wear one. Ziva'_Onyeh_ insisted the environment was safe, but words alone weren't enough to wash away a lifetime of paranoia. As it was, the fact that she would be surrounded by her _Dram'zelt din Relai _was the only reason she hadn't outright refused.

That and to get away from, as Archer had put it, 'the sausage fest'. Tali wasn't sure what that even was, but given that it sounded distasteful, she'd rather live in ignorance than suffer in wisdom.

She stepped out into the hall and found everyone else waiting for her. All of them had an additional fur lined _Seemas_-like garment over their shoulders that draped nearly to the ground.

Ziva'_Onyeh_ held one out for her. "Here; it's still cold outside so a cloak will help," she flipped a spacious hood up that nearly swallowed her features, "for a lot of things."

Tali swallowed, and was relieved to see all of her fellow females seemed to be nervous as well; with the exception of Ziva'_Onyeh_ of course. "The dresses and hood cover our faces and our legs; and the boots cover our feet; but what about our hands?" Jaali asked.

Ziva's eyes lit up slightly with amusement, "Here…" She pulled out a pair of gloves, but they had no individual slots for fingers except for the thumb. "These are called mittens; they hide your hands quite well. If this were summer time, it would definitely draw some curious looks; but since it's winter, we're no more out of place than any other group of ladies on a 'girls night out'." She explained, handing each of the group their own pair.

Tali quickly tugged them on, and looked at the older woman; "Where are we going?" She asked.

"Solomon's Island; they have a small park, indoor Aquarium, and a Maritime History Museum. It's a mostly summer kind of vacation spot, and pretty remote; we'll be almost entirely alone, except for the museum staff, and they have been made aware about the need to be… 'discretionary'." Ziva explained.

Nina gave a slight nod and took a breath; "I know that it's safe but…"

Ziva walked over and set a hand on Nina's shoulder, "We'll be fine; but if at any point you feel like you cannot continue, please tell me."

They all nodded, and Ziva swept part of her cloak over her shoulder; an action that very much mirrored Shepards and Lee's, and walked out towards the door. They passed the fireplace where August was sitting with June, the two of them going over June's 'English Homework'.

Sky and Shadow lay at their feet, curled up and laying on the ground.

August looked up with a small smile; "Hope you all enjoy your day out, I have my omnitool in case all y'all get into trouble." He said, while June waved at the group shyly.

Ziva nodded, "We'll be fine dear, but thank you; I still have my gun in case things go bad."

The other Quarians all looked nervously at their hosts, with Nina and Tali both checking their hips. "Just how bad might it get that we would need to be armed on your homeworld?"

"Oh not too bad out here in the rural areas, but most everyone carries as a 'just in case'. It's the big cities you need to worry about, but we won't be going there until tomorrow; The gangs stay away from large groups, especially military types since they know we protect and avenge our own." August replied, before reaching down and petting Shadow; who just gave a pleased whine as he scratched the furred Varren behind the ears.

They all headed out to one of the outbuildings where the Lees kept all of their vehicles except the bus. They saw a variety of vehicles inside; most were obviously working vehicles due to the dirt stains and industrial attachments, but also a small number of air-car sized ground vehicles. They all piled into a surprisingly spacious vehicle that resembled a wheeled shipping container.

"Not to complain, because this is positively luxurious compared to some transports I've ridden in," Nina bounced on the wide bench seat she was sharing with Leah, "but does Pilgrim Lee own _any _air-cars?"

Ziva waved a hand, "He does, but they are used for official business only; and air-cars are expensive. August may be rich, but he grew up living a more conservative lifestyle than you would expect from a rich human; or any rich person for that matter. These vehicles are cheap, reliable, and easy to use and repair." She explained.

Tali considered that, finding it a _very_ Quarian trait; even as the ride continued.

It was a quick ride, especially compared to the 'Bus' ride; and much smoother as well, as Ziva was clearly a much calmer driver. Although Tali noted with amusement that she seemed to share her bondmates temper in dealing with what she deemed 'Idiot Drivers'.

They quickly reached a bridge that led over the water, and Tali could feel her jaw drop at the size of the thing. Nearly every species boasted magnificent architecture, but most of them had also had Eezo tech for so long that ground transportation and the infrastructure to support it was nearly unheard of.

"That's the nice thing about human architecture; all of it has a very distinct lack of Eezo built into it. It's a good way to learn how to do things without being reliant on it." Ziva commented from the driver's seat, smiling beneath her _Seemas_.

They all looked out towards the Island, and saw that it was mostly made up of snow covered trees and a number of small buildings and docks. Boats, a lot of boats, were tied up on said docks because of the winter weather; and many of them seemed to use sails.

_Sails! Imagine that. _Tali mused as they crossed the bridge and reached the museum grounds.

The Maritime museum was interesting; for being a land based species, humans seemed to be rather well versed experts at nautical matters. But the giant sea predator's skeleton… it was terrifying.

Tali stood in the shadow of the behemoth which, according to the placard, had been extinct for 50,000 years. "Your people certainly are preoccupied with the 'ocean'. Only the Hanar are this interested in things living in the water, but for them it's about _where _they live."

The museum guide, who had been told about this… special trip, smiled in understanding; "Well for humans, we semi-live on water; you notice all major population centers older than two hundred years are either on rivers that feed into the ocean, or on the border to the ocean itself." He explained, gesturing towards the giant sea beast; "The fact of the matter is that we have actually explored and know more about the galaxy itself than we do our own oceans; and I suppose the itch for exploration still exists in humans."

He led the group through the rest of the area, most of it being a blur to Tali; but the cute little amphibious mammals stuck out in her mind the most. "What are these?" Jaali gasped, as one of the animals squeaked happily at her.

"They're called Otters; they're wild animals, but these ones were born in captivity and will die if released to the wild. They love being petted and all that, but we have to be careful; kids and their grabby hands and all that." The animal handler told them.

Nina stared at another one, and was clearly fighting her instincts to run away in terror; and Tali felt the same, and reached forward with a shaking hand. She slowly petted it, and the Otter squeaked happily; trembling all over. She let out a strangled giggle at the sensation of damp fur against her skin. Not even a week ago, simply having her hand exposed to the air would have laid her up; now she was touching a creature that lived in a solution guaranteed to have-_Stop thinking about it! You have nothing to fear. You could even..._

She looked back at Lia.

The last few days, she and Fyodor had been nearly inseparable. Everyone assumed it was just nerves about her adopted son, but now she understood; for the first time since he was a baby, he could touch his parent, breath in their scent, connect with them in a way no Quarian family had in 300 years.

There was a splash of cold water on her arm, and when she looked down there were nearly two fists of 'Otters' clustered around, all looking up at her with their tiny hands held in front of them. She didn't bother holding back the laugh as she gently extended her hand towards them, and reveled in the sensation.

* * *

"We'll be meeting up with the rest of the group at the Saloon; now you all get to taste the food as opposed to just sucking it down in purified tasteless nutrient paste." Ziva was saying, breaking Tali out of her thoughts while they approached the Van.

"Is it really that good?" Leah asked, "Because I do remember the 'Rice Krispy Treats' that I helped make tasting good, despite losing most of the flavor in purification."

"It is something to die for… Oh _Bosh'tet_." Everyone blinked while Ziva stared at one of the tires. "Of course it has a leak at the worst possible time." She snapped angrily, kicking the tire.

"Oh don't worry; we can just use our omni…" Lia trailed off as all of them remembered that there was not a catch all Eezo based solution they could use.

"Huh… That's a problem." Jaali admitted.

Nina mimicked Ziva's earlier action and kicked the tire, "Well now what do we do?" She demanded.

"Calm down girls." Ziva stated, "I'll walk over to the museum and see if any of the staff would be so kind as to give us some 'Fix-a-Flat'. Wait here while I get some." She ordered, before walking back to the main building.

As she walked away, Tali couldn't stop the question in her mind from coming out of her mouth; "What do you guys think about her?"

"She reminds me of Admiral 'Xen." Nina leaned against the van. "A female in a male dominated role, utterly confident in her work, and driven enough to test it on herself." She looked at the shocked eyes of her fellows. "Well she certainly didn't test it on June. You've seen how Pilgrim Lee is with her; no way Ziva would risk Lee's grief and wrath if anything happened to her."

"You say that like she cares more about Lee as opposed to her own daughter." Lia murmured uneasily, clearly thinking about Fyodor. She may have been his adoptive mother, at least until they got back to the fleet and located his family, but she was still very attached to him.

Nina shrugged. "I'm not a mother myself, so I don't know. From what I've seen, August and Ziva care about each other equally; but I get the impression that if anything were to happen to June, the Major would murder the galaxy."

"And I would be there burning it down with him." Everyone jumped and turned to see Ziva staring at Nina.

Tali and the rest were about to back away even as Nina stood her ground, but then stopped when she saw Ziva's eyes. They were watering, and it wasn't from the cold; "June is my daughter, and I love that girl with all my heart; I would never do anything to hurt her… Nina'Ciram. Why would you believe that I would not love her so?"

"Because I don't know you." Nina levered herself off the van. "You didn't rescue Fyodor and Lia from those animals at the Citadel, the Major did. You didn't stand up to the Commander for Tali, the Major did. The only thing I know that you have done is create the cure, which you put into the hands of a human, not the Fleet. I know the Major, but I don't know you. And only you can correct thet." Her tone was even, but challenging.

Ziva narrowed her own eyes, while everyone else took a step back; "Then let me introduce myself, I am Ziva'Lorah soon to be Lee; Doctor, Geneticist, Mother, and Researcher. This cure that lets us walk around without consequence took _years_ for me to develop. _Years!_ Years of testing it on myself, because there was no way that I, or the Ancestors, would allow myself to test this unfinished cure on my child!

"Years, where I would come home barely able to stand; or unable to come home at all, confined to a hospital bed in a clean room because of all the reactions taking place in my body. Long sleepless nights, sometimes with August and June there; sometimes just June because August was lightyears away protecting the Galaxy.

"And sometimes, June wouldn't even be allowed to see me because I was so disfigured from the reactions I _intentionally _inflicted on myself; so I and my colleagues could know how to counteract them on a genetic level, so my little _Neyha_ could go around without being confined to those damned suits." Ziva took another step forward, and this time Nina did step back; "Just as one example among hundreds; do you know the pain of a Wasp sting? No you wouldn't, since even with humans it can kill someone if they are allergic and too much toxin enters the bloodstream; Now imagine how I felt, with no immune system and an allergic reaction?"

Nina took one deliberate step back and bowed. "My apologies, _Hau'eal _Ziva. I spoke in ignorance before, but I will not again. No one will doubt your dedication to our people, or to your child; not while I stand and may say otherwise."

Ziva sighed, "I accept your apology Marine; you could not have known what I experienced to give us this opportunity." She shook the cylinder in her hand, which Tali had forgotten about in the exchange; her mind still reeling from the sheer amount of _pain_ that Ziva had gone through. "Come now, let's fix this tire and be on our way; the Red Hawk-Blue Dog Saloon awaits us."

* * *

Wrex was taking a breather from 'families' and 'kids'. He didn't begrudge people, but it always felt like a stab in his soul at what he and his people were denied. He was aimlessly wandering the farm grounds when he came to a set of metal strings encircling a field. There were several stocky, dare he say 'poofy' creatures milling around.

All except a larger than normal 'Poof' with two very impressive curled horns.

"Careful there Mr. Wrex, he's a mean one; very territorial and loves headbutting people in the crotch if he thinks they are intruding on his territory." One of the older human farmhands piped up as he walked by.

"What is this species called?" Wrex asked, noting that the human didn't shy away from him in fear or surprise at his question. In quite the contrast to the many bigwigs on Arcturus, and the humans he had met in their megacities and the Citadel; these 'rural folk' as they called themselves were hardy people, if the fact that they wrangled animals like these horned ones was a good indication.

The animal snorted angrily, and pawed the ground with one of its hoofs; before charging forward and crashing into the fence with enough force to cause it to bend.

"It's a male sheep; we simply call them rams, chiefly because they ram headfirst into anything they see as a threat. I'd show you the one bull we have, but he's getting shots right now; so he's pretty pissed." the farmhand replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh," Wrex curled a lip and looked at the small creatures. "I've heard your people refer to 'sheep' before, but the impression was they were weak and helpless." The ram started pawing the ground and dipping its head low.

Wrex chuckled and went to lean on the string fence.

"You'll not want to do that," the farmer commented absently.

Wrex scoffed. "I've taken on whole armies before; what's this little animaaahhhhHHH!" Wrex jumped back from the metal string and landed in a heap, as the farmer and two others just laughed.

"I meant about the fence; it's electrified since that's about the only thing Brutus respects. And even then it only pisses him off for the most part; he backs off if he gets zapped for too long, but he'll be in a foul mood the rest of the day." The Farmhand explained, dusting some snow off of his 'Fur-Lined Denim Jacket' and 'Cowboy hat'; clothing that these types of humans seemed to prefer.

Wrex just got to his feet, and took a deep breath; these animals must have been _really_ strong if they could shrug off a burst of electricity that could send a Krogan like him on his ass. "How do you control it?" He finally asked.

"We use Blue, oh speak of the devil." The farmhand whistled, and the White-Blue-Black furred Varren from the first day trotted up to them; immediately shoving its snout into the humans hands, who started scratching the animal behind the ears.

The Krogan looked down at the fuzzy creature half the size of a runt varen. "What, this thing?" he pointed at Blue, who immediately licked his digit. "He couldn't corral a drunk Vollus. How's it supposed to deal with that?" He pointed at Brutus, who let out a deep and strangely intimidating_ -Blaaaahhhh!- _

The farmer just smirked, then put two fingers in his mouth and gave a short, sharp whistle.

Wrex watched as Blue jumped over the fence, and started letting out some ferocious sounding barks, nipping at the Rams hoofs. The previously aggressive and angry thing immediately bleated and hopped back; huffing and pawing the ground, before Blue nipped its ear.

The Ram bleated again, and grudgingly started moving towards the horde of female sheep; all of whom started to gather into a tightly packed mass of fluff.

"...How…" Wrex rasped. By all rights, the Ram could have killed the thing; but instead it backed off.

"Simple. Blue, like all dogs, is descended from Wolves; and Rams know to fear Wolves through instinct. That's what separates us from Animals, we can override our base instincts; humans as a rule fear the darkness, as that was when the most deadly predators came out to hunt. Brutus may subconsciously know that he can beat Blue, just as easily as Blue can beat Brutus if Red is helping him; but Brutus's instincts force him to run, because they tell him that he's in mortal danger and needs to flee." The Farmhand explained.

Wrex stared at the human; many humans he had met had derided their fellow humans who live like this man. Living on a farm with other humans, and tending and raising animals and crops for the rest of their population.

They were derided as 'simple folk' that were stupid, uneducated, and didn't really matter in society. Instead, here was a person who had more guts, smarts, and even philosophical knowledge than some Asari Matriarchs.

"I know that look." Wrex glanced at the human. "You've got that 'you mean country folk aren't just cousin-fukin shit covered hicks?' look. We see it all the time." The other farm hands gave knowing nods. "Dean there has Double Masters Degrees in Animal Husbandry and Dietary Sciences. We have a fulltime Environmental Ecologist, and another horticultural geneticist, both with PHDs. I've got a Masters in Farm Management. Farming is big business, and that means there's a science to it. Besides, we've been at this for a few thousand years, so you pick up a few tricks."

Wrex considered what the farmhand had said, "Are there other animals like this Ram?" he asked.

The farmhand thought it over, then nodded with a grin; "Yeah, I can show you the two Boars we got; Hey Harry?!" He shouted, and a black haired human female dressed the same way as the men looked up. "Watch over Blue and the herd for me while I show Mr. Wrex Romulus and Remus."

* * *

Kal wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not; especially since he no longer had an envirosuit to protect him from hypothermia. He tightened the 'Tri-Color Desert Parka' as Lee had called it, around himself.

He was pretty sure his pale-lavender colored skin was turning blue from the cold; and he was also sure that ice was forming in his close cropped black hair.

"Relax, kid," Ashley manhandled a portable drill into the cabin on an inflatable base, "the ice here's nearly a meter thick. You could park the Maco on it and we'd be fine."

Kal had to resist the urge to snort, "I'm pretty sure I'm the same age as or older than you Williams."

She looked up at him oddly. "Really? With those baby-soft cheeks, I figured you for your early 20's."

Kal sputtered. "Baby-soft cheeks?!" He put his hand up to his now exposed flesh, feeling suddenly self conscious.

"Yeah, no facial hair on it at all; and I know Quarians can grow beards since I did see Fon practicing shaving while Phil coached him through it." Williams replied with a smirk. "Don't know why, since the Major implied he was going to enforce a beard policy."

Kal blinked, "A what?"

Williams shrugged, "A beard policy; because beards are among the best ways a person can disguise their face. Plus, word is coming down that we may be running an Op on New Kurdistan soon; and in Islamic Culture, beards are a sign of manliness. So there is a method to the Ghosts madness." She explained as she began digging through a box.

Kal thought about what she just said; about the possibility heading deeper into Triple Alliance territory. He'd know on an intellectual level that they were going after the _animals_ that had attacked his people, and the Citadel; but for centuries, the Quarian Marine Forces were a defensive, reactionary force. They didn't embark on military adventurism, but here he was; planning to invade the sovereign territory of a colonial power that the Systems Alliance was hard pressed to contain.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when Williams coughed, "Can I help you Sergeant? You seem to be quite interested in my face; is it as pretty as the girls back at home?" She asked with a cheeky grin.

Kal snorted, even as he felt an odd rush of heat to his face; and he sat down on the small stool; "What did you call this anyway?" He asked to take his mind off her question.

She smirked at his deflection. "It's an auger. We're not getting through the ice with our bare hands; not without a lot of back-breaking and sweaty work. Help me hold it up."

Kal grunted as they struggled to lift the damned thing in the confined space; while Ashley tried to steady it. It took a few minutes, but they finally got it set up and activated it. As they watched the drill bore through the Ice, a thought came to Kal's mind. "Williams, how did your people fish through the ice before you came up with tech like this?" He asked.

The drill was already halfway through the Ice when Ash opened her mouth to speak; and then the drill died. The two Marines stared at it incredulously, until Ash just sighed; "And this is why humans avoid asking those kinds of questions; because you tend to get the answer in a way you don't want."

She cursed their luck while Kal tried to scan it with his omnitool; only to stare at it in confusion. "It doesn't use Eezo?" He asked incredulously while Ash began to rummage through her box.

"Of course not, Eezo is expensive; and battery powered stuff and hydrogen works just fine when not in space." Ash replied, not even looking up. "Aha!" She came up with a smaller hand powered drill, a large metal spike and a hammer.

She immediately took off her thick Parka and Kal looked away on instinct. Ash just rolled her eyes on seeing his reaction, "Please, I'm still fully clothed; you'll want to shed that Jacket since we'll be doing physical labor, and sweat is a death sentence out here." She informed him.

Kal grimaced, but did as he was told; while Ash began to hammer the Nail into the Ice. He noticed her glancing his way, and decided to get a little of his own. He put just the tiniest swagger in his shoulders as he removed the jacket. He was rewarded by Ash missing the Nail completely and slamming the hammer into the ice. He could see the furious blush on her face as she recomposed herself.

_Who's got _baby-cheeks _now?_

* * *

Jane just stared at the rifle in her hands.

It was old, but still pristine like it had just rolled off the production line. "What did you call this thing again?" she asked him, as August shrugged on his Denim Jacket and his brown Cowboy Stetson Hat.

"This is a M1917 Enfeild; it was pretty much the Standard Issue Rifle to the American Expeditionary Forces during World War One. Now, it is the most popular Civilian sporting Rifle; and used by American Great War Reinactors all over the world during Armistice Week celebrations." August explained, shouldering his own 'Enfield' Rifle.

Jane just huffed, while she dressed up like everyone else for Armistice Week; she never understood the reenactors. Still, August had offered to take her out shooting for a one on one 'heart-to-heart' as he called it.

Pulling on her own cowboy hat, and a set of winter Earmuffs; Jane quickly slung her own rifle, regretting that she couldn't take Eve with her. This would have been perfect practice for her to interact with the real world.

Pushing her bad feelings down, she quickly followed August out of the Mansion.

As they trudged through the snow, Jane noted that August kept looking back towards the house; before he finally seemed to relax. "Alright… we can start our talk while we walk." He finally said.

Jane licked her lips, which were already chapped from the cold wind; "I suppose we can…" She replied.

Neither said anything for a long moment, before August finally sighed; "You're still hung up on us withholding intel from you, I can tell."

"Yeah… wouldn't you?" Jane asked, genuinely curious more than anything else; he acted like withholding intel was common, but what unit would-

"No… Not really, because it happens all the time in the GST." He said simply, climbing over a fallen tree; brushing snow off his gloves. "That's a consequence of being in a unit that doesn't exist. If we get caught, we're disavowed, stripped of all records of being a citizen of the Alliance; and left to the Hyena's to be picked apart and killed. Compartmentalization is practically mandatory in that kind of environment."

Jane snorted as she stepped over a fallen log. "There'd be no way to maintain loyalty, _esprit-de-corps_ or even discipline in any of the line units I've served in with that kind of mentality."

"We make it work, mainly because we all work towards a common goal. There's a saying amongst the Ghosts; 'You don't Pick the Ghosts; they Pick you'. All of our members were picked because they all have the same mark in their psychological profiles; that being a strong sense of Morality, a strong sense of Loyalty, and a desire to serve a higher calling." Lee explained, as they reached the shooting range; setting his Enfield down on one of the tables, and setting out several clips of the .30-06 Springfield Ammunition.

Jane unslung her own rifle, opened the bolt and set it in the stall next to August. "You almost sound like you don't believe other units have the same sense of duty. N-7 may be a volunteer force, but we only let the best wear the Black-and-Red; and that includes psych."

August just raised an eyebrow as he lifted one of his winter earmuffs and put in some earplugs. "Jahenne… can you honestly tell me that there were no Sociopaths or Psychopaths in the N-7's; more importantly, can you honestly tell me that they don't act at least a little sociopathic at times?"

Jane opened her mouth to say something, when August preempted her by saying; "The Wolves are made up of a number of former N-Trainees and even some N-7's; Kei Leng was an N-7, and I know you've heard of him."

That stopped Jane cold as she processed his answer.

There wasn't anyone in the galaxy who didn't know about the Butcher of Torfan. Her own misgivings after having met him during some of their units' training overlap had been ignored by the Cadre. Every training and supervisory officer in the N program was reassigned after he'd killed his way to the pirate command center, pirate and slave alike. The fact that he detonated an enhanced radiation device on the moon afterwards, 'to deny the asset to any future threats', had been a serious black mark on the entire Alliance Military.

_Crack!Pang!_

Jane jumped slightly, even as August worked the bolt of his rifle with a grim expression on his face. "We're Ghosts; we may not be untouchable, but we're pretty damn close to it. Every single one of us fears being like Kei Leng; and there is a silent pact between all the Ghosts that if anyone starts to… go off the reservation in even the smallest of ways, _everyone_ makes sure that person knows that they have a red flag now. They step out of line, get civilians injured intentionally…"

_Crack!Pang!_

Jane frowned at the target down range. "Say for a moment I was comfortable with a unit with as much reach as yours that is entirely self accountable; I'm still left with four Operators under my command who can _and have_ kept intel from me. How do I trust you? How do I trust your GST's agenda won't suddenly shift and I find myself on the wrong side of your team? To date, the only assurance I have from your people that you won't act against the best interests of the crew is from that repairman your people sent, and even he was keeping secrets."

August seemed to think on his answer as he aimed down his rifle, before he finally sighed and lowered it; "I don't know… But I will say I trust you Jahenne, and I know my team feels the same. And we'll be damned before we betray our friends Shepard; and you and the rest of 1-4-1 are our friends. Perhaps you can't ever trust me… and honestly that's fine; because we trust you, and everyone else."

He looked her in the eyes, and didn't deviate once as he talked.

"August, _I _don't trust _myself_ that much. What is it you people think you know that gives you this," she flailed for words for a moment, "zeal, this absolute belief in _me_ of all people?"

He smirked, "Call it faith; and sometimes, that's all you can have."

* * *

Kal sat on the stool as he held his line above the hole in the ice. "This is fun for you? We've been sitting here for an hour and a half, and the only activity in this water is when you skim fresh ice off."

He didn't add that in spite of the cold temperature and sitting around doing nothing; he was still 'sweating bullets', as Ash had called it, from digging that Ancestors Damned hole in the ice. He did it because he needed a distraction; mainly to take his mind off the fact that he was wearing a nearly transparent t-shirt.

Ash had been there beside him the whole time: digging, hammering and scooping. She had eventually stripped off all but a service undershirt, which her own exertions had also made nearly transparent; and her dark hair had come loose from it's tight bun, and hung loose around her face.

Now that they were no longer active, he had nothing to focus on other than the silent hole, and the suddenly flirtatious Gunnery Sergeant. He gave as good as he got as far as teasing was concerned, but as far as he could tell, teasing was as far as they were going to go.

At least, he was pretty sure… maybe...

"There'd be more activity if you'd relax and be quiet." Ash was now fixated on the hole. "Ice and water conduct sound extremely well; and while fish are rock stupid, they're skittish. You need to _tease_ them in; tantalize them with the promise of that one perfect morsel without any distractions."

Kal gave her a light smile, "Sounds familiar."

Ash smiled back, "That it does…"

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Kal's line started twitching; startling them both, and allowing them to conveniently ignore the blush spreading across both their faces. He went to pull it up, but then Ash put a hand over his in warning.

"Not yet!" Ash hissed, not moving her own line. "Wait until he tries to take off, _then _give it a solid yank to sink the hook."

"Why does it have to be a male?" Kal eased his grip on the rod just enough to feel the different tugs. "Maybe it's a female, impressed by the size of the lure?"

Ash gave him a smirk as she set her rod into a holder and picked up a net. "Please; a _real_ female isn't duped by any old dangly lure. She requires skill, patience, and..." the line went taught and Kal yanked hard, "initiative! Reel-em in! Reel-em in!"

Kal couldn't keep the grin off his face as he pulled the line in while spinning the reel. It helped keep random thoughts from popping into his head. Such as when Eve had told him offhandedly about Ash looking up Quarian Physiology; Kal was just glad he told Eve that him doing the opposite was a secret.

After a few seconds, the resistance increased; and Kal nearly fell into the hole, and Ash had to grab him to steady him. "Holy Hell, you've got a big one Kal!" She exclaimed, looking into the darkness.

"Feels like I'm trying to pull a credit chit out of a Volus' grip!" He replied, pulling hard enough that he was sure that the fiberglass line would break.

"Almost, almost," Ash had put on an animal-hide glove and had her hand poised over the line, "Gotcha! Hahaha!"

She grabbed the line and pulled it up along with Kal, as a silver and green striped fish head came out of the hole; and got stuck.

Ash blinked at the... the... Monstrous and wriggling mass of scales and bug eyes. "Oh _hell _no!" Kal could only stare in shock as she jammed her hand in its mouth and hauled. "From Hell's heart, I haul on thee, oh damned fish!" Kal abandoned the rod, as at this point it was meaningless, and grabbed Ash's arm with both hands and pulled.

**-POP-**

Kal and Ash both yelped as the fish flopped on the ice; its tail swinging back and forth, dousing both them and their winter clothing once again after it had been set aside. _Well guess we're not leaving until that stove dries our stuff off. _Kal grumbled to himself.

He looked at the creature they had fished up. It was nearly a meter long, and almost ten centimeters wide. He was still marveling at the idea of catching his own food, rather than relying on others to prepare it for him, when Ash grabbed the hammer from the drilling kit and _whacked_ it on the head.

He glanced at Ash and immediately looked back at the fish; doing his best to ignore the fact that her T-shirt was now transparent, her chest only protected by that weird thing human females wore under their suits and _Raelk_ equivalents. And It was doing a very poor job of it, to say the least; since it was also practically see through.

And she was very clearly stealing glances at him; and trying to hide it, and failing at it as well.

They both stared at the monstrosity, until Ash said with a slight waved in her voice; "Well… our stuff is soaked, and we're at least a mile from the nearest building; so we're stuck here until the damned stove dries them off. Hmph… feels like the beginning of a Fornex Article or Video."

Kal huffed in amusement, "Fortunately for us both, this is real life." he replied.

She snorted. "Speak for yourself; if this _was_ a Fornax video, I'd be aching in different spots and we'd have a conveniently dry change of clothes on hand."

Kal chuffed a laugh. "And a craft services crew to deal with our river beast here." He toed the fish, only to jump slightly when it twitched.

Ash plopped onto one of the benches and looked with satisfaction at the fish. "Are you kidding? When your people retake Rannoch, you're going to be the foremost expert on fishing. Imagine the fame, the adulation," she glanced at him, "the women."

Kal sat down with a thump. "Yes, because nothing attracts the females like the smell of sweat and dead animals. Besides," he stared absently at the creature they had just ripped from its home, "I don't even know if there are any fish left on Rannoch, or rivers even."

He glanced around the interior of the portable cabin. "We have no idea what condition our homeworld is in. We have this grand unified vision that we'll 'retake our homeworld!', and then everything will suddenly be alright. Almost as many people live on the Citadel alone as the entire Quarian race. How are we supposed to fix an entire planet? If the ecosystem has changed enough, or if we have, then what happens to us?"

Ash considered his words grimly, and leaned up against the side of the portable cabin; "In all honesty Kal… I don't know. Your people could settle on Earth." Kal gave her a wide eyed look and she held up a hand, "Humor me, Do you know how many biomes there are on Earth?"

Kal blinked, "Er… Well it's cold and snowy…" He said uncertainly.

Ash just gave a loud snort, and held up a hand with her fingers held up; "To start off, this is only in winter; that's not counting the other three seasons. Then there's the region; this is the northern temperate zone. Temperate regions have the most seasonal variety. We're also in a coastal area so there's-"

Kal held up his hands. "I get it, there's a lot more to your world than snow and river fish."

She gave him a mildly cross look. "Amaterasu is my world, but I'll give you a pass this time."

Kal just shrugged, "Well… Rannoch, at least according to our records, is filled with river canyons and large open plains and savannas; there is only one major ocean, but most Quarians settled in or on top of the canyons." He closed his eyes as he thought about it, "If I remember correctly my clan, clan 'Reegar, was among the few to actually settle near the ocean; and even then, it was next to the river delta that fed into it."

Ash rubbed her chin. "Well... aside from the rivers that sounds like the American Midwest, and the Serengeti in Africa, and most of the Anatolian Plateau. The Central Asian Steppes as well, if you don't mind the cold that is. Australia, Mexico, Peru, though that's mostly mountains... where else?"

Kal just laughed, "Alright, alright I get it… Thanks for the offer, but I doubt the people there would be happy with us taking their land away from them. Still… Thank you…" He said it warmly, it was heartfelt, and neither broke eye contact.

Ash huffed after a moment and fanned her now less see through undershirt. "Well, it's not like you'd be limited to just this world. A lot of SA colonies are shared with other species. We share Olor with the Salarians, and Anhur has a sizable Batarian expatriate population. Your people would _have _to be better neighbors than either of _them_. Besides," she sat forward and slapped the fish between them, "with Dr. 'Lorah's new genetic cure-all, you aren't limited to just Dextro worlds anymore."

"Maybe," Kal hummed, "but a lot of our people will still want to find a nice, arid dextro planet over any others. It's what we are, _who_ we are."

"Then we'll help you find one." Ash smiled at Kal. "The Relay network only covers, what; one percent of the galaxy? Hell, there are 83 star systems within 20 light years of Earth alone; even if we stick to just normal jump ranges, statistics favor finding your people a viable world."

She reached over and grabbed her shirt. "Still damp." She leaned back and stretched her arms over her head. "Got any cards? We could play a couple of hands of strip-poker." She leered at him.

He leered back, then stripped off his under shirt. "Sure you can afford the Ante?"

She gawked for a second, then roared with laughter. "How about we stick to fishing before we get ourselves in trouble."

Kal nodded once they had both calmed down and stopped laughing; lowering their lines back into the water. But as they did so, Kal couldn't stop himself from saying one last quip; "We can save that for the second date."

* * *

Liara stared at the sign on the roof of the old, rustic styled building.

One of the outlines looked like Red, while the other looked like some kind of ferocious looking Avian riding on top of him. The highly stylized English words spelled out 'Blue Dog-Red Hawk Saloon'. It had a homey feel to it almost, as Liara and the rest of the group walked up to the porch.

Her group was among the last to arrive, which was herself, her _father_, Matron Shiala, Kal'Reegar, and Ashley Williams; the last two Liara noted seemed to be staying rather close to each other.

August, June'lee, and all the other male Quarians had arrived at this 'Saloon' an hour ago; apparently to explain to the other patrons the need for discretion, this place being _very_ popular with Alliance Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, along with the local Farmers and Fishermen.

As they walked up, they could hear voices chattering inside; and Liara hesitated for a moment.

But Kal and Ashley didn't seem to care, and kept walking as they talked; "I still can't believe I can eat Dextro _and _Levo food unsterilized, and still get the necessary nutrients from it. Perhaps next time we can cook up that… _Monstrosity_ and eat that instead." Kal was saying.

"Didn't even know that Walleyes come this far south; christ I thought it was going to bite my hand off." Williams replied, opening the double doors and striding in.

Liara followed behind them, her father and Shiala close behind her.

The inside was spacious, with a number of booths set up along the wall; and the center of the room cluttered up with four person tables. But in the center was one long table, where everyone from the Normandy sat around.

Noticing that the only empty seats were beside Major Lee and Madam 'Lorah and their daughter; Liara quickly took a seat. Her father and Shiala sat to her left, while Kal and Ashley sat across from them.

"Ah! Welcome! Welcome, what drink can I get you for today sir and misses?" Liara jumped at the voice and looked to see a shorter human with thick boxy glasses and tanned skin standing behind her.

Kal blinked and seemed unsure while Ashey quickly pulled up a sheet of laminated paper that was in front of them.

"Just get them all a Huckleberry Hooch, some water, and some Coke Bobby." Major Lee said beside her. "They can pick out other drinks later."

"Gotcha Bro." Bobby replied with a grin, and clapped the Major on the back while August grinned.

While Shiala and Aethyta immediately started looking over the menus; Ash, Kal, and Liara all shared a glance before looking at August. He grinned in response, "That's my Foster Brother that I told y'all about, Robert Edward Tashiro-Lee. His parents were very close friends with mine, and when they died my family took them in."

Ash stared at him while Kal and Liara nodded in understanding; "Tashiro… But he's…"

August chuckled, "My father is obviously old American, my mother was a former Polish olympian; Bobby's mother was a Mexican SA FIB agent, the FIB was the predecessor to the IAA." He explained on seeing Liara and Kal's confused looks, "and Bobby's father was a Japanese-American Engineer and Researcher." August grew serious and looked around, "Word on the street is that he was researching a way to boost Eezo cores so that they could travel at the same speed as a relay without using one. Someone didn't like that and… well…" He cleared his throat, "Let's not talk about such sad matters, here; I already ordered."

He pushed the laminate menu in front of her; and Liara looked it over. Fried Shrimp, fried oysters, fried chicken...

She looked over at Lee. "Several of the dishes seem to be prepared the same way, but I'm not entirely sure what, 'Fried' is."

"Oh that's when you put the listed food item into a vat of oil; I personally dislike it, but Bobby put that list in to appease the people who prefer it that way. Hmm… for you Ms. T'Soni, I would personally recommend the Venison; For you Sergeant, I would go with either the Chili or the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. Or the Chicken Pot Pie, that's my favorite of the bunch next to the Spaghetti and Meatballs. Oh! And don't forget to save room for dessert." Lee said with a smile, before turning his attention back to his Mate and his child.

Ashley got a peculiar gleam in her eye. "Major, how hot can they make the Chili?" Her eyes flicked towards Kal'Reegar.

Lee gave her a sideways look, "Depends on the person, but the default is mild; the Hottest uses Carolina Reapers." He replied with a suspicious look.

Liara didn't know if Asley was trying to hide something from the Quarian Marine; but if she was, she had failed. "What are you up to, Ash?"

Ashley pouted for a moment, then rallied. "Sergeant 'Reegar, for the Honor of the 2nd Frontier Division, I challenge you to a Chili eating competition!"

Kal sat up at that. "On behalf of the 'Reegar Clan of Marines, I accept your challenge?" He sounded uncertain, but determined nonetheless.

Lee rolled his eyes, "Ah crap." He looked over his shoulder, and Liara noticed his Foster Brother walking back towards them; "Hey Bro, we got a spice challenge."

Liara did _not_ like the smile that appeared on the human's face. "Oh… I'll tell my staff to get the Chili ready, and the toilet paper as well. Who are they, the two Jarheads?" Bobby asked.

August just pointed at Kal and Ash, and Liara had to fight a giggle at the aggrieved look that flashed across the man's face. Bobby leaned forward and whispered in August's ear, but since she was seated next to the Major, Liara could hear him just fine; "Since Ziva's cure makes them duel Amino-Acid; and the challenge comes with the Hooch… should I sneak him some condoms and be ready to kick them out?"

Liara had to fight down a laugh while the Major considered it, "Naw, they ain't drunk or stupid enough to go that far… yet…"

Wrex hadn't yet looked out of his menu. "How many chickens are in your 'Fried Chicken Basket'?"

Bobby looked at the massive being perched on the tiny end chair. "Er…" He looked at his foster Brother and raised an eyebrow.

August waved his hand and shook his head. "No, he wants the Bubble-Bass burger."

Wrex thumped a fist on the table. "What I want is vengeance on that feathered monster you keep in the 'Coop'! Little bastard flew into my face, pecked me in the eye and _crapped in my mouth!_" The entire table had to resist laughing at the battlemaster's plight. "I demand Justice, I demand satisfaction, and I demand a tankard of something to wash the damned taste out of my mouth!"

August Smirked, "We'll put one on the side for you, considering the fact that I doubt we have enough chicken for you. I suppose a tankard of the Peach and Strawberry Moonshine would work for you." He stated, giving Bobby a look.

The Asian-Hispanic Man nodded with his own smile, "Yeah, I think we can put a chicken on the side for your burger." He quickly went around the table and took everyone else's food orders, even as several servers came around and set down the drinks.

He approached Ash and Kal, and the human smirked at the two; "So... you two are doin' a Gut-Burner challenge; so that means the only other thing you get is a tall glass of cool, refreshing milk. And some Peach and Strawberry Moonshine, but that just burns as well; and provides no relief for you." He looked at each in turn. "You should know there are rules and etiquette for this sort of thing; so the first one to go for their milk, loses."

Ziva shook her head at the next day's impending suffering, and looked at the remainder of the Quarians. "I'd suggest either the Crabcakes, or the Gumbo with mashed potatoes. I speak from experience in that you're going to want to build up your jaw muscles some before tackling anything tougher."

Bobby nodded, and wrote down their orders while underlining Wrex, Kal, and Ashley's. When he reached Liara, she still wasn't sure what to get; so she asked, "What is the Major having?"

"Ben's havin' his usual whenever he stops by, Chicken Pot Pie with Old Bay Garlic Fries." He replied.

Liara and several other people seated close by blinked in confusion, and Bobby laughed; "Ah yes, I see that he never told any of y'all; but when we were kids, he hated his first name cause it was long and hard to pronounce, on top of the fact that it made him instantly recognizable. So he went by his middle name, 'Benjamin'; or just Ben for short." He explained, even as Lee gave him a '_really?_' look.

Liara giggled, remembering how she never liked introducing herself as T'Soni; and deciding to take pity on their host, said "I'll have what he's having then." Bobby nodded and wrote it down, walking off to the kitchen while yelling in a different language other than _English_.

Everyone went back to their conversations. After about ten or so minutes, Lee took the opportunity to lean forward to talk with Shepard, Kal, and Ash; and Liara could not help but listen in on it.

Shepard leaned forward as well to be able to talk to talk to Lee, when a voice called out; "Food's Ready!"

All five of them were jostled out of their thoughts, as Bobby rolled up a cart, while a number of other servers walked up while carrying trays with food on it. On the Cart, was the 'Gut-Burner' Chili Pot, the 'Moonshine', and Wrex's 'Bubble Bass Burger' along with his Chicken on the side.

With the exception of the Ghosts and Madam Ziva; everyone's eyes bulged out of their head as they spied the 'Bubble Bass Burger', which was almost a meter tall.

Liara turned her attention from the carnage of her fellows and began working on her own meal; the fries she was already familiar with from the Major's culinary endeavors during the infrequent, 'movie nights'. The Pot-Pie was a novelty, but not an unpleasant one.

"So August, while these two lovebird idiots;" Shepard quickly gestured to Kal and Ash, "Get ready for their challenge, is it alright if I ask you some questions about your pre-military life?" She asked. Liara perked up, but remained as inconspicuous as possible; the enigma of Major Lee was a tantalizing mystery, and this seemed a unique opportunity.

August shrugged as he dug into his food, "Don't see why not, just don't go too personal alright?"

"I somehow don't see the scion of the Lee Estate choosing military life first; so what did you want to do before, everything?"

August shrugged, "Well I always found school boring, and knew an academic life wasn't for me. I loved History, and had I stuck the course I very easily could have gotten my doctorate and gotten a Professorship at some big university; but like I said, I didn't like the academic life. Plus, with my heritage I felt like they would have just given it to me; I wouldn't have earned it." He took another bite of his food while Liara thought it over.

The Maiden paused mid bite. _August had considered academia?_ She found it difficult to reconcile the warrior she knew with the professor he could have been.

Lee spoke up again, breaking Liara out of her thoughts, "I told you that I considered the Priesthood," He smiled even as Shepard cringed much to Liara's confusion. "But again, while I did very seriously consider it…" His smile faded and he looked away, "Well… Let's just say my faith was shaken at that time."

Liara blinked, while Shepard gave him a sympathetic look; then she remembered Lee's rather troubled history. She couldn't fathom the grief of losing a parent, much less her entire family. She glanced at her own _father_, who was currently teasing Wrex about the mess he was making with his bizarre meal. What would she do if she had lost her own mother? What kind of person would she become?

"So what led you to the Army of all things?" Shepard asked, jarring Liara back to the conversation.

Lee shrugged, "Well… It was one of the only places my family doesn't have a major influence in; especially not after my father's death. And shortly after I finished boot, General Grant approached me with an offer for a new Clandestine Unit; with my first assignment being Omega. And the rest is, as they say, history." He leaned back in his chair and finished off the rest of his food.

A rather simplistic story to what he was today; but it did tell Liara a lot about the intellectual turned soldier. It told Liara that even though she herself was an intellectual, she could be a soldier too.

Liara looked over at Kal and Ash, both of whom were impatiently waiting for most everyone to finish before they started their challenge. She noted with Amusement that both had instead started taking bigger and bigger swigs of their 'Huckleberry Hooch'; and were both getting visibly tipsy.

"So how about a little _quid pro quo_," Lee leaned forward and pointed with a fry, "what's the _real _story behind Jahenne Shepard: the woman, the myth, the legend?"

Jane stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Certainly none of that drivel you see in the vids. The Shepard's are an old spacer family, and an even older military family. The first Shepard fought in the Canadian Army during the Great War, his son fought with the SAS during World War Two; and so on until they reached me."

"So no aspirations to be an explorer or a diplomat? Just GI Jane Shepard, Systems Alliance Armed Forces?" Lee asked with a raised eyebrow; while Liara considered such ancestry. It seemed as if not even the unpredictable humans were not immune to hereditary inclinations.

She shook her head with a chagrined smile. "Wrong branch of Shepard's; there was never an 'Allen' in my family tree."

"No, but there is an 'Alien' there now!" Garrus buzzed while snatching a fry off her plate. "This Duel Amino-Acid Cure is awesome!" He exclaimed happily.

Tali looked over from the commotion of Ashley and Kal desperately trying not to back down; the two of them clearly drunk and having started their challenge, while Liara was focused on the conversation between August and Jahenne "I do worry a little about the Citadel's reaction to the cure. They are annoyingly strict about any form of genetic modification," she began grumbling around a spoonful of mashed potatoes, "when they aren't the ones meddling in peoples genes."

Lee smirked, "Oh I wouldn't worry about the Council. I know for a fact that Sparatus is on our side; and the GST knows a lot of… undesirable things about the Asari and Salarians that they wouldn't want getting out."

Liara didn't miss her father's alarmed look towards the Major, nor the look of suspicion from Captain Kirrahe from down the table; but thankfully, everyone was distracted by Kal and Ash.

"AHHH_ Skur'wielu _my mouth is on fire!" Kal yowled; even as he downed more moonshine.

"You bastarrrrd! Just give uuuupppp!" Ash slurred, downing her own shot of moonshine.

Both quickly ate another spoonful of their Chili, and swayed in their seats; "Forgot… what's the prize for the wiiiinnnnerrrrr…" Kal groaned.

"Loser has to kiss the Winneeeeerrrrr…" Ash replied, putting an arm around the Quarian Sergeant, who responded in kind; even as they cursed each other out as they took another bite of Chili.

Liara smiled while August rolled his eyes, the Major leaning over to his mate; "Honey, could you take June and Fyodor to the van with Lia? We'll be leaving in a few minutes; and I get the feeling things are about to get a little heated in a sec."

"In what way?" Ziva asked, smiling behind her _Seemas_.

"Not sure, but I believe the Major thinks… not child friendly either way." Liara interjected.

Ziva nodded, and quickly began the process of getting June and Fyodor ready to go along with Lia. As they did so, Liara looked back at the two Marines; even as they struggled to take another bite of the chili.

There was the subtlest of shift in their expressions, and suddenly the Ghosts and Quarian Marines were scrambling to relocate the inebriated pair. Wrex observed the event with a disdainful eye, while Liara watched them go with concern.

"Hmm. Kids either can't hold their liquor, or their meal." He eyed the still steaming bowls, even as Liara blanched at the sounds of vomiting coming from Ash and Kal. "Oh well; it's already paid for, so no reason to let it go to waste."

Wrex grabbed both bowls and swiftly upended them into his mouth. He remained motionless for a moment until Colt's voice rang out from the pier attached to the restaurant. "_Thar she Blows!_" accompanied by the razzing cheers of the soldiers.

"Blearrrrgh! What is this!? Why are my eyes burning?!" Wrex desperately reached for anything to relieve the agony in his mouth.

Lee finally took pity on him and placed a glass of milk in his hand. "Eat some bread with that." He advised, even as he shrugged on his jacket.

Wrex wisely followed the major's advice, and was soon able to breathe normally again. "You actually eat this?! What kind of hell world are we on, and why aren't you ruling the galaxy with an iron fist yet?"

"_Shizuka ni hanashi, ōkina bō o hakobu."_ Bobby replied, already handing out boxes for those that had not finished their meals; while neither Wrex nor Liara understood what he said, both could hear the sarcastic tone in his voice.

Both looked at the Major, who shrugged; looking slightly annoyed, "Just because I'm an expert on foriegn languages does not mean I can speak _every_ language around." Lee replied before looking at his foster brother with a raised eyebrow; who shrugged in response.

"'_Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Stick'_ Is what I said; Humans don't rule because… well, we don't want to. All we want is for you to do what you want, and for us to do what we want; and so long as it's not harmful or impedes others, you're free to do whatever you want." He explained, collecting dishes.

Jane chuckled as she stood up. "I have a less philosophical answer for you Wrex. We're omnivores; if it doesn't kill us first, it's food."

* * *

San looked in the mirror as he reached up and touched his face.

He had Grey-Tan skin, with Black-Purple hair; something that he had known all his life. But actually seeing it in person, and not through a recording of him when he was still in his bubble was something else entirely.

"Preppen' for your little movie date with Eve?"

San jumped and turned to see Major Lee, once again in his Desert Tri-Color BDU, leaning against the hatchway to the engineering spaces. San had to fight down a small blush as he fully processed the humans question; and the cheeky smile the man had on his face certainly did not help.

"It's not a date!" San protested, though the words sounded weak; even to him.

The Major just chuckled, "Yeah… sure… just be careful you don't go too far; or else the commander will have your ass spaced." He replied, walking away as he sipped his cup of tea.

San's face scrunched in confusion. "She's a starship! I wouldn't even know _how _to 'go too far'." His expression shifted slightly to disdain. "Though Pilot Joker'Moraeu seemed to have some ideas before Eve locked him in the flight deck."

"Just goes to show you; tread carefully kid!" The Major called back, his voice getting quieter with every step he took.

San looked back over at Pilgrim Lee in confusion. Was it really just a month ago he and the Commander terrified him in the engine compartment? He shook his head and headed for Eve's 'room', clutching the fresh bag of 'Popped Corn' everyone said was a must.

He knocked on the hatch and waited. It opened up and Eve was 'standing' there in her _Sehni-_like 'hoodie'. He felt a lot less self conscious with her like this than he did with the human and asari who insisted on going around bare-headed. It was rather amazing that she looked more and more real with every passing day.

A week ago, the first time he'd talked to her after getting the cure, she had been partially translucent and a little mechanical in her movements at times. Now, San had to _really_ look to spot the threads that gave away her synthetic origins. Her eyes had a dull green glow to them, and she looked and felt as solid and real as an Organic; the only other thing that San could think of off the top of his head that would give her away, was the dull blue glow that surrounded her entire body due to her Eezo infused hologram.

But that was easily explained away as Eve being a 'biotic human'; and the fact that Sergeant Vakarian, Commander Shepard, Fon, and San himself had been stringing up new holographic projectors all over the ship probably helped.

She smiled and waved him in. "Come on in! I asked dad to program a chair for you into my projectors." The seat flashed into existence at her gesture. She frowned absently. "Well, I asked dad, but mom actually programmed it; said that dad would mess things up. How do you mess up a chair? Maybe she thought he would play a prank?"

San had visions of the terrifying Turian sniper lurking near the engine compartment the hours after he had suggested Eve watch 'Fleet and Flotilla' with him. He smiled for the extremely charming AI he found he was becoming very fond of. "Well, shall we start? I brought..." He looked down at the solid food, realizing how foolish and how rude it must be to-

Eve reached over the bowl, her hand coming up with a dot of light which she popped into her grinning mouth. He grinned back, and soon the two were giggling madly as he sat down and began showing Eve the Quarian Fleet's single greatest contribution to galactic popular culture.

* * *

"Awww… It's so sweet!" Jane gushed as she looked at the camera's set up in Eve's 'room'.

August remained seated at the other end of the conference table, absently reading over procurement forms and the like; he did smirk at Jane's exclamation, but he said nothing beyond that.

Kal rolled his eyes, and did the same as August; although he did smile as well. San was a good kid in his opinion, and deserved the win. Then he winced from his _massive _hangover from the last two nights of drinking.

Kirrahe and Shiala of course could have cared less, though Kirrahe did make sure to note how human Eve seemed to be acting; and how as time went on, she was improving her hologram by herself more and more.

Garrus however buzzed in displeasure; he'd be failing in his duty as a Turian father if he didn't test the hell out of San before he was certain the boy was good enough for Eve. _Just you wait you little punk; when I'm done with you, you'll be hard enough for the Black Watch, or a weeping puddle of unworthy hormones._

A stylus stuck in his frill, drawing his attention to his better half, the love of his life, currently staring bayonets at him. _I didn't say any of that out loud, did I?_

Either Jahenne was a mind reader, his thoughts were all over his face, or he really did say it out loud; as Jane hissed, "If you hurt him, and Eve by extension; by God I will rip your mandibles off the side of your ugly ass face Garrus."

Garrus cringed in response, while August snorted in amusement as he sipped his iced tea; "Oh go easy on him Jahenne, he's a guy; it's our job to intimidate any person that tries to date our daughters. I have a .30-06 Springfield Bullet with the words _'Guy Who Hurts June'_ carved on it; and my M1917 Enfield with it's sword-bayonet up in my bedroom." He took another sip, then noticed Jane had turned her glare on him; and immediately leaned away from her while giving her a nervous smile.

She shook her head and rested her head on the table; "I am surrounded by Idiots."

* * *

**Pilot A/N: Check my profile for the link to the discord.**

**Not much to say beyond the team taking a vacation and rebuilding trust in each other. Next Chapter will start off a **_**Major **_**Arc, and I certainly hope you all enjoy it.**

**Eve is slowly becoming less "AI" and more "Human"; and San is slowly breaking the Quarians Collectivist Ethos and anti-AI mentality. The Restaurant scene and the romance between Kal and Ash is another example of both growing beyond their cultural restrictions and to help establish later plot points.**

**Most of the recipes listed are actually my families foods; if I had the money and if it wasn't for the Police State lockdowns arresting anyone that tries to go into restaurants and Gym's, I would open one right now. **

**Although the "Bubble Bass Burger" was not my idea, just look up "Binging With Babish" for more info on it.**

**The Intro Scene with Tali was mainly to get her and the others used to the idea of living without suits; though culturally they still cover their faces since that would still be seen as the deepest of intimacies. For how they're dressed, just refer to my earlier chapter regarding the description I gave Ziva; They use the **_**Seemas**_**, which is the Quarian Hood (the **_**Sehni**_**) but with a longer trail like a cloak or cape, to cover the lower half of their face while using the hood to hide their hair.**

**And Ziva and Nina's confrontation was both to show the building of trust between her, the Quarians, and the Humans along with the rest of 1-4-1; and also to show that her "Miracle Cure" was not a walk in the park to make.**

**The Shooting Session with August and Jehenne and the Wrex scenes… well I think you should handle that Ian since those were your ideas.**

**Ian A/N: The range day with Shepard was at the heart of what this chapter was really meant to showcase: rebuilding trust. The Ghosts have secrets, that is an understood fact. But keeping intelligence compartmentalized is a bit of a cultural issue that most militaries and intelligence services have in common. For such a small, tight knit group as 1-4-1, that can become a major sticking point. Whatever the Ghosts feelings on the matter, Jane needs to trust them; and she, until now, couldn't do that.**

**Wrex is the unfortunate victim of "getting Worfed". He's the biggest, baddest character on the field so of course we were going to pick on him. But it's also a response to the tendency in sci-fi that all alien life is bigger/tougher/meaner than anything on Earth. **

**That is a lie. **

**We have some insanely dangerous animals here on Mother Earth, many of which we don't think of because they are domesticated. Pigs will eat anything that doesn't eat them first. Roosters will attack anything that moves and regularly kill foxes. Rams and Goats will cave in a truck door as easily as getting sideswiped on the highway.**

**And that's not considering viruses like rabies; which is 100% fatal.**

**Earth is an amazingly dangerous place that we just so happened to evolve to survive on. Wrex learned that the hard way.**

**Not much else to say except "Stay tuned!"**

**Pilot: I hope all of you enjoyed; the next chapter will be up next friday at 11 AM EST, as usual. Next chapter of Half Life: Entanglement will be up next Wednesday at 11 AM EST.**

**Please leave a review and tell us what you guys think of this chapter; the feedback really helps us out guys.**

**A TV Tropes page would be much loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	24. New Kurdistan

Lieutenant Commander Shepard keyed on a hologram in the middle of the conference table, "We have a new mission, and are due for a supply pick-up beforehand."

"What are we getting from the supply pickup?" Major Lee asked, leaning back in his seat.

Shepard gave him a look, "More ammunition and more of _your _weapons, powered suits, those Stealth Cloaks, your Uniforms, and more of those 'cheapo-variants' of your armor. The General said that he didn't want a repeat of Noveria, so he's giving us all of your gear; and we're going to New Kurdistan, to an outpost called 'Fort Ulysses'."

"And he's giving us a lot of miscellaneous clothing worn by the locals I assume?" Kal piped up from his seat, scratching his five o'clock shadow; uncomfortable with growing a beard, but doing so nonetheless.

Both because the Major had advised him to do so for undercover work; and privately, because Ash had found it 'sexy', in her own words.

Lee nodded, and pulled up the list Shepard had just sent him, "Yup, boonie hats, beanies, Jeep Caps, Goggles, Shemaghs, Pakols; old Tri-color Desert Fatigues, and so on. That means we're running an Asymmetric campaign with some locals that are pro-Systems Alliance." He noted.

Kirrahe nodded from his own seat, "Yes. Not much known; will be meeting up with IAA agent who will escort us to them once we leave 'Fort Grant' for the mountains."

While Kaiden and Ashley looked mildly uncomfortable at the prospect of working with the IAA, Lee openly scowled. "Will we be expecting the IAA to assist us in this operation?" He asked, sounding like he had been eating that 'Gut-Burner Chili'.

Kal almost shuddered at the memory, that had not been fun; vomiting into the river.

"No, just the one agent tasked with this particular Militia." Shepard replied, sounding almost relieved at the prospect.

Alenko just hummed in reply, "Right… When do we drop in on Fort Ulysses?"

"About a week, and the supply pick up is in four days; make sure you all get any personal affairs in order before the pickup, because we'll be running dark from there on out."

* * *

Kal stared at the 'Tri-Color Desert BDU' that everyone would be wearing from now; at least until the end of this operation on the ground. Apparently, this pattern had been chosen because it blended in best with the environment of New Kurdistan.

Personally, he and the rest of his squad plus Tali'Zorah were comfortable with the _Sehni-_like scarf; but the Commander and Sergeant Willians seemed to take great personal exception to the head covering. Ashley in particular had immediately started railing against the garment as soon as he commented how nicely it framed her face. He could swear she was blushing the entire time.

The rest of their kit for this particular mission was, in a word, _rustic._ He and the other Quarians had never worn anything but their environment suits before, and the loose fitting brown attire felt like it was always on the verge of getting caught on something. This was mitigated by the asundry bits-n-bobs strapped to them: Shoulder pauldrons, knee pads, elbow pads, shin pads, a thigh holster for the chemical propellant pistol everyone was wearing, and an armored vest _covered_ in attachments. Kal figured he must be wearing almost 20 kilos of equipment, though it was surprisingly well distributed. _Chalk it up to humans not having Eezo tech until recently._

He glanced over to where the commander was huddled next to Garrus. He thought for a moment that they were having a last minute briefing, until he reached inside her _Sehni_ and brushed her cheek. It occurred to him as he turned away, that they had never once been separated since he had met them.

Kal walked over to the armory crate, and made sure he filled up on ammunition; another unfamiliar task, and noted the Major and Lieutenant Alenko were conversing quietly. He knew it was wrong, but Kal couldn't help but listen in.

"-interested in guys as well as girls; why do you ask sir?" Alenko was saying.

"I'm just here to warn you, that's something you should probably keep to yourself; for radicals like EA, the penalty for homo and bi-sexual activity is death. The 'Pro-SA Militia' we're being attached to? Well we don't know much about them, but we do know they have Communist leanings; and they aren't big fans of that kind of activity either." Lee replied, his tone low and warning.

Kal had a sudden sense of foreboding; if these people were this aggressive against their own species over something so trifling, how would they react to a squad of 'aliens'?

The Major looked over at Kal, and seemed to sense his thoughts and said; "I wouldn't worry Sergeant, these people may not be the biggest fans of 'deviants' like Alenko or Aliens in general; but they are pragmatic, and will take the help when offered."

Kal shifted his shoulders, settling the weight of the many ammunition pouches. "That seems a bit of a cold comfort, sir; but we'll do our duty." He looked the officers in the eyes. "So, do we know anymore about what this Op is yet, or are we awaiting this _Iya_ agent for our instructions?"

The Major tilted his head back and forth; "A little of both; apparently, our main purpose is search and destroy. We're locating several EA held villages and one minor industrial city; and helping the 'Pro-SA' rebels take them. The IAA agent will brief us on the rest when we rendezvous with them in the mountains." He finally said, pulling on his skull bandanna.

Ash walked up next to Kal, and he had to fight down a blush as he recalled their shared experiences during the platoon's vacation. "If all we're doing is wrecking EA shit, why hasn't the local Tin-Pot general just hit'em with an air strike. It's not like the Han suddenly give a crap about sapient rights." Kal's eyes bugged slightly at Ashley's frank, and rather disturbing assessment of her fellow human's contempt for life.

Shepard walked up and joined them; "Because the Ack-Acks prevent anything from getting close, and the Triple Alliance fleet allows no one except diplomatic vessels to approach New Kurdistan." She explained.

"So, what? EA allows the Batarians to patrol their space?" Ash made the same face she had the morning after 'The Chili'. "That seems like a self correcting problem; we just wait for the Batarians to get all slaver-y, then come in and liberate the world."

The Major shrugged, "That's what I said, but the General told me there were strategic reasons for doing so; and I ain't that much of a thinker to try and puzzle out his 6D chess moves." He replied.

Kal sighed, then looked back at his own Marines. Everyone was fully kitted in the human gear. It was strange, but this was the most uniform he had ever seen his own troops. There was a twinge of... something; like he was getting a glimpse of his people lifted up, but only at the behest of another.

He shook the thought out of his head.

He personally owed these humans, and his whole people would soon be freed from the confinement of their wretched immune systems thanks to them. Wearing their equipment until Quarian ingenuity gave birth to Quarian manufacturing again was a small price to pay.

"Alright! When we get down to Fort Ulysses, we'll be briefly augmented by another Ghost team; who will stay attached to us for an undetermined amount of time, at least until they can set up a supply line for us." Shepard exclaimed, Jostling the Ghosts, Kal and his Marines, and Shepards own two Marines.

The Major nodded, "Well get a more complete briefing once we get on the ground; we'll be taking a stealth shuttle to Fort Ulysses, and we'll spend a few days there while our deployment and landing zones are worked out." He smirked, and looked over at Shepard, Ash and Alenko; "You guys remember Brooks? She's part of the team assigned there."

Alenko's brow wrinkled as he tried to place the name, but Ashley's eyes lit up. "Really? I need to shake her hand and thank her properly for saving my ass back on Eden-Prime."

At that, Alenko remembered where he knew the name from. "Wait, wasn't she the bored, snarky sniper?"

Shepard nodded, "That's right, she's the one that guided us to Nihlus; and her partner… Garth, I think, was the one that saved Nihlus' life if I recall correctly." She turned to the Major and raised an eyebrow, "They were some of yours?" She asked.

All four of the Ghosts nodded, "Yup, Garth was in our Chalk for training and an old friend; and Brooks is one of the newer recruits. Eden Prime was actually her first real mission you know." The Major replied, and Kal knew the man was smiling behind his balaclava.

Shepard smiled in kind, "Well… good to know we'll be working together; alright, lets get aboard the shuttle."

* * *

Tali grimaced as the stealth shuttle bounced again as it descended through the atmosphere.

The practically _giant_ bag filled with her spare clothes, sleeping bag, MRE's, spare ammunition that she couldn't fit on the well balanced but still heavy Armor Vest lay between her legs; her new rifle pointed up at the roof of the shuttle while sandwiched between her bag and her seat.

The eleven people inside the shuttle were packed loosely together; another concept foriegn to Tali, as back on the fleet even civilian transports would be packed as tightly as possible to maximize efficiency.

And Colt was not helping matters; "So there are these two soldiers."

Tali rolled her eyes even as everyone in the cabin groaned or sighed; "Oh Jesus…"

"Here we go..."

"_Kheelah, _again…"

"So there are these two _soldiers_." Colt repeated, "and the first one asks the second one, 'If you knew a nuclear bomb was about to go off in front of you in five minutes; what would you do with the rest of your life?'."

Kal snorted next to Tali, while she rolled her eyes; "Disarm the bomb." Kal stated, as if the solution was obvious.

Colt didn't seem to think so, even as the shuttle jostled around again; "No man they can't-" He huffed, "Look they can't disarm the bomb."

Phil looked at the smaller human, "Why not?" he asked.

"Because it's a _joke._" Colt emphasized and drew out the word 'joke' in his reply; clearly exasperated somewhat, "Anyway, the first guy asks the second guy; and the second guy thinks for a minute, and says 'If I'm gonna die, I wanna die happy; So I'd fuck the first thing that moved'. After a minute, the second Soldier turned to the first and asked 'How about you?' The first soldier looks at the second and says, 'Me? I'd stand very, _very_, still for five minutes'." He chuckled as everyone processed the punchline.

When no one laughed, he just grumbled unhappily and crossed his arms.

The intercom suddenly crackled to life, and everyone looked up at the speaker. _"We're coming up on the landing zone; three mikes to landing!" _

Everyone began shifting in their seats, grabbing their weapons and their bags.

Exactly three minutes later; the shuttle bounced harshly, and then was still. The Major and Commander hopped up in their seats, "Alright! Grab your gear and file out; meters running folks." The Major ordered.

As the group filed out of the shuttle, they made their way to the 'Fort', which in Tali's opinion was more like a series of big tents and sheet metal buildings with a mud wall around it.

As they approached the gate, a young human dressed in the same kind of clothing Tali and the rest were wearing walked up. Tali noted that he was about the same age as or even younger than her; and seemed to be nervous on seeing them.

"Hey Corporal, TF 1-4-1; where do we bunk?" Williams asked.

"Uh you see the Quonset huts? Those are for the Fireteams. The team name or number is on the door sir." He replied, then noticed Shepard and Lee; the only two wearing their ranks, the copper colored leafs.

He quickly saluted the two, until Archer smacked his hand down, "Don't ever salute in country." She snapped as the group kept walking.

Colt and Fon huffed, "You trying to get our Major and Ell Cee killed?" Colt asked, still keeping his joking tone.

"But these guys are all friendly?" The human protested weakly as Tali and Nina walked past; Phil and Kal carrying a crate of their more important supplies, while Alenko levitated another behind them.

Alenko just snorted, "That guy?" he asked, pointing at a human wearing an oddly shaped fur hat and a long coat that reminded Tali of the Major's dress Overcoat from their time on the citadel. "He's not my friend." Then he looked at another local smoking a cigarette as they walked through the gate; "And that guy is definitely not my friend." He stated, even as the local glowered at them suspiciously.

Nina just chuckled from the back, "That guy? He looks friendly, he could be my friend." she joked.

Tali just shook her head as they walked up to the door of the half cylinder building; mostly just glad that her new clothing was doing a good job of keeping her warm. As she walked in, she was caught off guard by how messy the place was; and how much space was left unused.

Colt followed just behind her. "250 years on, and we're _still_ using these miserable things."

Archer lightly shouldered past him and dumped her kit onto a cot. "Longer than that. Brits started making them in '16." There was a rattling and a draft passed through the hut. "Guaranteed discomfort in every environment."

"Hey Garth!" The Major exclaimed.

Tali looked to see a bearded, long haired human walk in from the other side of the hut; a massive grin on his face.

"Nomad! How's Ziva and June?" The man asked, walking up and clapping the Major on the back; while Lee did the same to him, both having massive grins on their faces.

"They're fine, your wifes pretty pissed at ya though; since you didn't tell her how you got hurt. And she's pissed at ya for missing your kids birthday party." Nomad replied.

"Knock Knock bitchs!" Tali jumped and turned to see four more humans enter from where Garth had been; while the Ghosts all grinned.

"Ell Cee, you met them briefly on the Citadel; but this is the other Ghost team that will be accompanying us to the EA research facility and the Rebel Warlord. Garth, Castle, Rook, Rose, and Brooks." Major Lee said, turning to the rest of the group and pointing at each of the humans in turn.

All were dressed in a similar way to everyone else; the Desert Tri-Color Camo fatigues mixed with some local garbs. Tali smiled and gave a shy wave; as did Nina, while Kal and Fon both nodded to the new Ghosts. Alenko smiled, while Ash seemed to draw herself up somewhat and was clearly struggling not to salute them.

"Pleasure to meet all y'all." Garth replied with a grin, "Go on and set your gear down and follow me; I'll give you the tiki tour."

While the words _tiki tour_ had no meaning to her; Tali could understand his intention, and went to follow him. Until Nomad tapped her on the shoulder, and she looked to see him pointing at her new gun; _"Don't go anywhere without it."_ He whispered.

Swallowing, Tali grabbed the Gun and slung it over her shoulder; noticing both Nomads team, and this Garth's team were not moving to follow. "Er… Major aren't you coming?" She asked, drawing the attention of her fellow Quarians and the Marines.

He shook his head, "We've all been here before; so while you guys get to go around and see the base, we'll be getting everything in order and going over any operational changes with Garth's team." He shrugged, "We'll be here when you get back for the 'Cultural Briefing'." He stated, doing air quotes.

Tali nodded, and quickly filed out with Garth and the others; wondering just what the Major hated about this 'Cultural Brief'.

* * *

Fon followed the long haired human in front of him as he led the group of Quarian and Human Marines out of their barracks and towards the inner wall of the compound. They passed through a zig-zag of Quarian-height metal-mesh cubes filled with more dirt. Once inside, they saw a very large, open sided tent with multiple rows of benches and long tables. There were several squads of soldiers sitting around the tables, while more came out of a fully enclosed long green tent carrying trays of food.

"This is the DFAC. We're a high ops-tempo posting, so the cooks are on hand 36/40." Everyone looked at him oddly at the strange phrase. "Yeah, nobody planetside uses the old Earth calendar, and the day/month cycle is different. You'll get used to it, but you're gonna hate night patrols cause they just go ooonnnn."

Garth suddenly paused and looked thoughtful; "Uh… You guys have all got your winter gear right? Cause the only unit with proper winter gear at the moment is the 2nd Rangers and they ain't sharing." He asked.

Fon blinked, and looked down at his jacket; wasn't this sufficient enough for the weather? Yes it was rather cool, but nothing like the Vacation at Pilgrim Lee's home. "Isn't this sufficient?" He asked when no one answered.

Garth grimaced, "Yes… but you won't be very happy or comfortable; it'll keep you alive and that's about it. There was snow and Freezing Rain last night; and the weather won't change until May." He explained.

Fon looked back at the now uncomfortable squad behind him. "We're not really used to _needing _specialized environmental gear."

Tali was glancing around, then remembered something from the _Quasi-_hut. "Maybe we can make those _punch-o's_ like Pilgrim Lee and his team wears. There were those heavy looking green blankets on all of our cots; we just cut a slit for our heads to stick through." She felt, and looked, especially pleased at the simple solution to their problem.

Garth nodded and gestured for them to keep moving; "Sounds like a plan, your jury rigged copies won't have the cloaking abilities or the ballistic weave; but for concealing equipment and keeping you warm, it would work just fine. Just don't mess with the 'Wooby', or you'll have a lot of angry troops giving you the stink eye."

They walked up to a section devoid of tents, and gestured around several sets of exercise equipment; already, about half of it was in use by other humans. To Fons amazement, most of the men were shirtless in spite of the cold air; and all the women wore simple t-shirts, all ignoring the furious glares or lustful looks of the locals hired to help guard the place.

"This here is the exercise area, now in spite of the cold it's rather humid here; which means you sweat like crazy when exercising." He looked directly at Tali, Nina, the Commander, and Ashley; "most of the locals we hire to help guard the base don't really care about Islam or Sharia law or anything like that; but there are a few that slip through the net. And those ones will get pissed at the fact that a bunch of _women_ soldiers are exercising and dressing like 'whores'." He said this with big air quotes while gesturing at the female humans exercising.

"If they get in your face or argue about it, just break their nose; we had only one guy try to… ahem… force himself on a female Marine. He was shot, and then his corpse covered in bacon grease and alcohol in full view of the rest." He stated simply; and then he noticed the horrified look on the Commanders face, while Fon and the others were confused.

Garth looked at Shepard, "That's a harsh reality out here; these people only understand and respect strength and brutality. Mercy to them is a weakness, and they will show you none." He stated simply.

Nina looked back and forth from Garth to Shepard. "What's the matter with bacon grease and booze? It sounds like a Krogan funeral to me." The other Quarians chuckled at that.

The chuckling died out at the look Shepard gave them. "I believe the terms you would use are _Hrarxa _and _Oparqiit._" The Quarians all closed in around one another. "For Muslims, coming into contact, even after death, with anything alcohol or pig related makes them _Oparqiit_, even to their God. Having that done intentionally is _Hrarxa_."

"It's also a damned effective tactic." Garth looked the Commander straight in the eyes. "It isn't pretty, and it isn't kind, but it absolutely gets the point across that _respect _goes both ways; if they insist on disrespecting our belief in personal freedom and try to impose their Sharia laws on people who are here to help them, then they can expect us to show them the same contempt."

Fon swallowed, looking at the locals again with a cautious eye; there was no way that he was going to go anywhere alone now, and there was no way that he would trust these locals. Not unless he wanted to meet his Ancestors early.

He noticed Kal grinding his teeth as one of the locals turned his gaze on Ashley; and Fon had to suppress a smirk at the furious glare the Sergeant gave the Local, and the grateful look Ash sent towards Kal.

"In any case, over there is the landing strip; now the stealth Shuttle that brought you in will be the last Eezo powered vehicle you will be interacting with for the duration of your stay." Garth explained, jarring Fon out of his thoughts.

The Marines all looked at each other, "Why?" Tali asked.

"Because EA has set up highly sophisticated Eezo sensors throughout the mountain chain; this base is the closest we can get with even a stealth shuttle. In order to get to the chain, and when we leave to rendezvous with the warlord; we'll be using those." Garth pointed at several strange looking aircraft.

Fon and the rest looked them over with interest. They were flat black, and favored curved surfaces reminding him of some Salarian ships he'd seen in his time. There were two large engines mounted on roof-mounted winglets at the middle of the craft, and he could see several vents on the bottom. The only straight lines were on the rear, where a flat pair of stubby wings supported two more vertical wings creating an 'H' shape.

Over all, it almost gave the impression of some kind of avian, looming over the pad and waiting to pounce on something.

"Right then! Onto the cultural brief ladies and gents; and then maybe some lunch."

* * *

Kal stared at the data-pad, playing the footage of the poor human female being stoned to death for being pregnant out of 'wedlock'. It was barbaric, quite frankly; and something he thought all races had moved past.

"Kal, Turn. That. Shit. Off." Ash growled next to him.

He grimaced but refused to do so, "I'm studying our enemy, and this gives us intel on them." He protested.

"That's not intel, that's propaganda and motivation; we already got a space station full of that." She replied, lifting the weights and lowering them as she exercised.

Garth had not been lying when he said that any form of exercise in the valleys caused you to sweat like crazy due to the humidity; and Ash had already stripped down to her sleeveless undershirt, while Kal was simply sitting on a crate and allowing the wind to cool him off.

He just shook his head, and glared at the one local who had been eyeing Ash up again.

The human was getting bolder as of late, the past two days he had been almost stalking her; not overtly of course, but finding excuses to be near her and in the same area as her. Ash had noticed as well, but neither wanted to make an issue out of it and cause friction with the locals.

"Perhaps… but it is good to study your enemy nonetheless." was all he said, keeping one eye on the local guard.

Ash snorted, and set the weights down while Fon walked up to have a turn with the weights; "Hey Fon, the female showers still have some hot water yeah?" She asked.

"Yup, Nina and Tali just got back from them; and they said no one's in there at the moment." Fon replied absently, "Hey Sarge, would you mind spotting for me?"

Kal reluctantly set aside his data-pad; and pulled on his black fleece jacket as the Cold was getting to be a bit much for him. Ash walked off as Fon started doing presses, and Kal noted out of the corner of his eye the local leaving to follow her.

"She'll be fine Sarge." Kal started slightly at Fon's strained voice, and looked down at the Marine. "Ashley's like us; she can beat that loser up no problem." He stated, even as he pushed up on the weights.

Kal just sighed and looked back where she had wandered off to, "Perhaps…" He conceded, as Fon lowered them again.

Fon gave him a cheeky grin, "Ah it's fine for you to worry Sarge; it's only natural to be worried about your future _Inszel_." He laughed while Kal gave him a dark look, and then Fon choked and flailed helplessly as Kal wordlessly added two more weights to each side.

Kal grinned vindictively as Fon struggled to get out from under the weight now stuck on his chest; looking up, he smiled on seeing Shepard and Alenko approaching, and looked back down on the poor corporal. "I don't really have time to continue spotting for you Corporal, but feel free to ask the Commander or the Lieutenant for help if you need it."

With those words, he turned and walked towards the female showers; intent on chasing that local away if nothing else.

* * *

Ash scrubbed the last of the soap and grit out of her hair. "It's so fucking humid here, so why is there _moon dust_ in everything?" She grumbled. That grumble turned to a hiss as the water began turning tepid.

It was interesting how most of the cold didn't come from the temperature; it came from the humidity, as the air was filled with water vapor. As a result it made the effects of the wind, which was almost constant, much more noticeable if you weren't covered in some form.

She turned off the shower and stepped into the changing room, only to come face to face with the Local National who had been all but stalking her since her arrival. He had set his weapons and load-bearing gear aside so his Kaftan and vest hung loosely. His bearded face was twisted into a sneer that was equal measures hunger and contempt.

Ash didn't bother demanding to know who he was, or why he was there as that was clear as day. A hundred nightmares flashed through her mind as he stepped forward, his hands curled into clutching claws. All those phantoms evaporated in a swell of cold rage.

_How DARE he?!_

He had a split second of confusion as she stepped into his advance, grabbed his right hand in both of hers and trapped it in the middle of her sternum. A single step back and a pivot to the right caused him to lurch forward, his head -_thunking_\- against the door jam. His startled cry was cut off as she shot her knee into his nose. Blood and spittle flew wide as he was rocked back on his heels by the blow. She maintained the grip as she stepped in, planting one foot behind his.

"Who the _fuck!"_ She slammed her elbow squarely into his right eye, sending him tumbling backwards over her tripping heel. "Do you _think!"_ She let go of his hand as he fell, and delivered a vicious stamp-kick to his groin, causing him to give out a strangled yelp and curl into a ball. "You are?!"

She heaved a few ragged breaths before turning to the abandoned kit and throwing it into the shower stalls. She looked down at herself and saw herself spotted with her attacker's blood.

"Fuck! I need _another_ shower now." She turned to the Local. "You move from that spot, and I will tear a sink off the wall and _beat you to death_ with it!"

His only reply was to curl deeper under the bench he had landed next to.

Satisfied with his compliance, she stalked back into the wash room for a now guaranteed cold rinse.

* * *

Kal quickly turned the corner on hearing a struggle erupting at her words to the local; and burst through the door to the female showers, preparing to throttle the human.

He was not prepared for what he saw; that being a naked Ashley and a thoroughly beaten local guard, who was barely conscious.

He had to fight every ingrained cultural instinct to not look away and keep an eye on the local; as Ash picked up her towel off the floor and wrapped it around herself with a huff, while the Local guard lay on the ground. He was flat on his back, dripping wet; his nose was twisted and broken, his right eye was hideously discolored and swollen shut; and he was holding his groin, while clearly dazed.

"And stop looking up my towel!" Ash snapped, kicking the human in the groin again; prompting a dazed groan, even as the local curled up in a ball in an attempt to protect himself from the enraged female standing over him. Kal coughed, and she looked up at him and blushed a deep red; "H-h-hey Kal, would you mind dragging this pervert outside? I'll talk with you about it once I'm dressed."

"R-Right!" He stammered, rushing forward and dragging the _Det kazuat_ out of the changing room; while keeping his gaze to the ground, his Lavender skin turning deep purple as he did so. As soon as they were outside, Kal's almost schoolboy embarrassment turned to furious rage.

This _Bosh'tet_ had looked at her, had tried to violate her; had tried to take her from him. Grabbing the human by the neck with an animalistic growl, Kal hoisted him up and pinned him to the sheet metal wall of the Female Showers; looking left and right to make sure no one was around or saw anything.

Thankfully, it was lunch; which meant everyone was either exercising, relaxing in their barracks, or eating in the hall.

He turned his glowing, furious eyes to the human in front of him; who was staring back at him in wide eyed terror. He was right to be, he had tried to take Ash from him; only the knowledge that he would sour his peoples relations with the humans stopped Kal from castrating and then killing this animal that tried to violate his _Inszel_.

He blinked, the haze blanketing his mind clearing as he thought of that word; _wait… what? _He wondered.

Shaking it off as he remembered the video of the woman being stoned to death for being pregnant out of 'wedlock', presumably the human equivalent of being bonded; he felt his rage return, but it was a cold rage.

Calculated rage; where he could still think clearly in spite of his anger.

He gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes; and the locals eyes widened even further, if that was even possible, as they had already bugged out to the size of a Salarians. "Listen here you little _Bosh'tet_, I may be an Alien; but I make an effort to study local cultures. _Badal_." The man seemed to come slightly to himself at the word. "I am sorely tempted to buy up every liter of alcohol on this post and drown you in it while beating you to death with a hog shank!"

"Kal…" He turned to see Ash looking at him; her expression unreadable. "Let him go."

Kal blinked, not comprehending her words somewhat; "He tried to-" He started.

"And I made him pay for it; no need to do anything that would be _**Hrarxa**_ and have _his_ clan involve _Badal."_ She glared at the man. "He has shamed himself, and his family; both by violating _Pashtunwali_, and by being beaten by an unarmed woman."

Kal took a breath, and let go of the man; who immediately slumped to the ground. He glared down at the man, and growled "Leave…" The guard lurched uncertainly to his feet, and staggered away; barely able to walk straight, and clearly in no fit shape. Kal turned to Ash and took a step forward, his rage calming to concern and worry; "Ash… are you… did he?" He couldn't find the right words, which was only made worse when she smiled and took his hands.

"No, he didn't. You'd be cleaning him out of the tiles with a squeegee and a pressure washer if he had gotten _remotely _close to that." Her smile fell, but she maintained her grip on Kal's hand. "You on the other hand were dangerously close to something equally unforgivable. What, the hell, Kal?"

He looked away as he thought of what to tell her; "Ash…" he licked his lips, "It… wouldn't be that big of a surprise to me if you had looked up Quarian Physiology right?" He asked.

She reddened slightly, and her grip on his hand turned painfully vice like for a moment.

Kal grimaced, "Well, for Quarians; due to our physiology and our immune system, biologically and culturally we tend to… well mate for life. That's not to say it's impossible for us to find other mates; in fact in a few clans it was common for males to take multiple bondmates. But that practice died out _fast_ and was only common in isolated clans." He started to explain; and paused on seeing Ash's somewhat confused expression.

"The point Kal? You know, the one that explains why you just tried to murder a Tee-Cee-eN?"

"Well… there's something called the _'tiyl_'s; the process in which a male or female begins the process of bonding with a potential mate. _Pemla'tiyl _is the first, and is one common amongst close friends and clan siblings. Nina and Fon have this relationship, you humans call it 'Like Brother and Sister'; then comes the _Hecs'tiyl_, it's when you have found a mate but are unsure if you desire them to be permanent bondmates. Biologically, this is a leftover from when we were still sapient primates; when the primitive Quarian packs needed to increase the size of their population." He explained.

Kal took a deep breath and looked away from Ash, knowing that he was rambling a little as he talked. "When we Quarians were in the equivalent to your 'middle ages', it was common for Chieftains, and Kings and Queens to have this done between their children if they desired to form Alliances. They would have their son or daughter go through _Hecs'tiyl_ with the child of the opposite sex of the other royal couple; have two children, one for each clan, and then have them break off and return to their respective clans or kingdoms." He stopped dead when Ash put a finger on his lips.

Ash huffed and shook his hand up and down. "If you don't get to the point soon, I'm going to go get Nina and Tali and have _them_ explain all this _'tiyl_ business."

Gulping, and quickly trying to get to the point so she didn't carry out her threat; he said, "Well… the last is _Felz'tiyl_ it's when the two bondmates realize that they cannot function properly without the other. This is the stage when Quarians mate for life; as it is physically impossible for a normal Quarian to break that bond." He swallowed, knowing that it was rare for Quarians to bond with an outsider; and that the idea of it happening to him was almost inconceivable.

_Well… Not impossible, since Pilgrim Lee did it._ A small part in the back of Kal's mind said.

Ash was silent for a long moment, then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips, "Kal, I don't need or even want a 'White Knight'. I want a partner and a Battle-buddy; someone who sees and respects me, and yes, who'll back me up no matter what." She let go of his hand and gently touched his cheek. "Once we're all out of 'the Suck' and back in the 'Verse, you're going to have to explain all this _'tiyl_ business in greater detail; preferably in private and over candlelight."

With that said, she smiled and walked away; and Kal didn't miss her swaying her hips slightly as she walked away.

"Hm… You want some advice Sergeant?" Kal jumped and turned to see Pilgrim Lee standing there with a raised eyebrow.

"H-how much did you hear sir?" Kal asked.

The Major gave a light chuckled and shook his head; "Just the tail end of it, Judging from the way you two are acting; I'd say that you two are just starting the second phase, the 'sexual love' portion in english terms." He said.

"Errr…"

Lee held up a hand, "Sokay, I went through this when I started dating Ziva; and uh… as a doctor and something of a burgeoning mad scientist she made sure to record the differences between each phase into terms I understand." He walked up and gestured for Kal to follow him, "At this phase, you both are going to want to... go at it very frequently; and contrary to what Ash just said, she does _not _want to wait either."

Kal's eyes widened and he gaped at the Major, but the man was not done; "I know because as a Quarian doctor, Ziva has had to deal with Human-Quarian couples before; and every single time, right when the second phase starts, the male half of the couple starts complaining about groin pain. And the female starts up about similar complaints. I think you know what the solution is." He said with a smirk at Kal.

Kal swallowed, fully aware that his face was turning Violet by the second; "S-s-surely this can wait until after the mission.

He shook his head, "In rare cases, such as myself and Ziva; you can wait a few weeks with no problems. Before your brain and body hits you like a freight train, and both of you will want to go at it no matter what; no matter the circumstances or location."

Trying to deflect some of his embarrassment, Kal asked; "What about you two?"

"We got lucky, and June was with Garth and his wife and kids place; while we were at home." He gave Kal a cold smile, "Don't try and deflect it Sergeant. I am going to go talk with Ms. Williams about it to give the same warning; you two can try to wait, but if this campaign drags on for more than a few weeks, then one night the whole camp's going to wake up to some very familiar noises." He gestured over to outside the compound, to a cluster of mud houses. "Those have been abandoned since we got here; it's common for the locals to take prostitutes there. So I'd advise you two to do the same so I don't have to worry about this over the course of the trip. Now then, I'm going to explain the situation to Ms. Williams; preferably with Archer's help so she knows I'm serious." He smirked and thumped Kal on the back, "Congrats my friend, you ain't dying a virgin."

* * *

Fon pulled down the goggles over his face, and adjusted the _Shemagh_ so that it covered the lower half of his face; the jet wash from the 'Warchief' VTOL Jet transport and the rotor wash from the two 'Nighthawks' was kicking up dust everywhere.

He shifted his bag, along with the rest of his gear; and walked in line with the rest of 1-4-1 and the Ghost team accompanying them. Major Lee and Lt. Commander Shepard both stood at the ramp of the massive transport, Lee counting off the troops as they boarded.

Pulling his 'Jeep Cap' down tighter, and blinking as his innate night vision adjusted to allow him to see clearly; Fon followed the group as they piled inside.

As he passed the Major and Commander, Shepard handed him a set of headphones; which he quickly put on and plugged into his comms equipment. "This is Bambi, signing in."

"_Copy That Bambi." _The Major replied, as Fon took his seat.

There were two humans standing in _open _windows, pointing a pair of mean looking chemical guns with five barrels outward. As the last person loaded on; the Major and Commander walked to the front, and took seats beside the two side gunners; _"Pilot, this is Nomad; do these oxygen masks work?" _He asked.

"_Hell sir, ours didn't work last night; this guy started seeing ghosts popping up in front of the windshield." _The Pilot joked, and Fon could see him point to the Co-Pilot.

Fon huffed angrily, "Well that's great, we'll be passing out from lack of oxygen."

"_Ah it's like taking a thirty minute nap, we'll be fine." _He heard the Commander proclaim.

Garth just snorted over the line, _"Yeah you guys keep telling yourselves that; I'm gonna stay wide awake, because I'm going to have my eye on that fucker right there."_ He stated, pointing right at the pilot; who smirked back.

"_It's not the falling asleep that worries me; it's the goddamned hangover that gets me." _Colt shouted, Fon wincing as did everyone else as there was slight feedback.

Phil solved that problem by dope slapping his fellow Ghost; and Fon felt the VTOL Transport Jet begin to take off the ground.

Archer locked her gear down and settled into her jump seat. "_We just need to do what the experts do."_ She looked at Sergeants Williams and 'Reegar. "_You two spent last night on '_Cloud Nine'_ and looked fresh as driven snow this morning_; _what's your secret?"_

Fon couldn't stop the grin on his face, and felt a little bit of petty revenge was justified after the Sergeant had left him stuck under those damned weights; "I'll say, you're practically glowing Sergeant Williams; I think I need some of those_ sunglasses _you humans like so much, just to tone it down with my innate night vision." He said into the radio.

"_Alright everybody, cut the chatter." _Shepard's voice cut in, though there was no hint of seriousness to it. "_We need to focus on the mission, not Kal and Ash's apparent Olympic endurance, or impressive vocal range."_

Ashley turned to Kal. "_Do you have your pistol handy?"_

Kal kept his eyes forward. "_No, because they don't deserve to get off that easy."_

"_Neither do either of you." _Colt's drawl came over.

Whatever Ashley said in response was drowned out by the 'Warchief' pitching and throttling up.

Once the cabin was quiet enough to talk again, Shepard leaned against her restraints. "_Alright, focus up. Nomad, you have the final security brief?"_

Fon could see the man shake his head, _"Only the meeting place and who to expect; an IAA agent by the name of 'Bowman'. The meeting place is where the choppers drop us off; and 'Bowman comes by with an escort and leads us to the rendezvous point."_

Garth shifted, _"What does this 'Bowman' look like?"_

"_He's dressed in a mixture of civilian clothes and military grade armor; and a backwards baseball cap." _The Major replied, just as the Warchief jostled again from turbulence; nearly throwing everyone out of their seats. _"I hate these fucking things."_

Fon and everyone else nodded in silent agreement, as snow started getting blown in from the gunners windows. Fon could feel frost building up on his jeep cap as Garth shouted; _"Well you guys know why the Army uses Warchiefs right?"_

Everyone except the Ghosts shook their heads; while the Ghosts all smiled, and all asked _"Why?"_

"_So we'll be good and mad when we go into battle!" _Everyone laughed, and nodded.

Colt suddenly began to sing, _"Silver wings, upon their chest."_

Word by word, the rest of the cabin began to join in on the song.

"_These are men, Humanities best._

"_One hundred men, will test today."_

"_But only three, win the green beret."_

* * *

**Pilot A/N: That thing with the Bacon Grease and Alcohol? **

**Yeah there's historical precedent for it; General of the Armies John J. Pershing, commander of all American Forces in WW1, was garrison Commander in the American Philippines.**

**Back then, the Muslim population was a **_**massive**_** problem; as they had no qualms about going medieval on foreigners and 'collaborators' and infidels. AKA, massacring entire villages and the like.**

**Eventually, Pershing had enough; and when he captured one of the Muslim Rebel Units, somthing like a few hundred, he had all except a few executed. Then he had his men dump the dead in a mass grave while the survivors watched; and poured pig's blood, bacon grease, and Alcohol all over the dead.**

**Once that was done, he told the survivors; "Go find the rest of your comrades and tell them this will be your fate if you attack Americans or our supporters again." For the remainder of the Philippines existence as a US Puppet, we never had problems with Muslims butchering innocent people again. **

**Was what Pershing did barbaric and wrong? Hell. Yes.**

**But there are times where sinking to their level is the only option; remember those rebels had butchered entire villages of innocent people. Raping the women, enslaving or radicalizing the children, and so on.**

**Sometimes, the luxuries of 'Clean War' are simply not an option.**

**Alright that's my bit for the day; Beyond Ash and Kal taking it up a notch. Were I comfortable with that sort of thing, I might have written a NSFW version of the chapter; but I hate that sort of thing, to the point I just skip it if it comes up in a Fic. If someone else wants to, they're free to try; but I likely would not (read, probably never) publish it as a side story. In that case you would have to publish it yourself.**

**What do you have to say Ian?**

**Ian A/N: There's honestly not a lot to say here. We're moving into a new phase for the story where we actively and diverge from the path of cannon. We will be meeting new characters, visiting new worlds and facing new challenges. We will also begin learning more about the elusive EA and it's shadowy leader, the Imam.**

**The developing relationship between Kal and Ash is no longer developing; it's fully grown. We will continue to explore that as we move forward. **

**Not much here for the gun-porn crowd, though coming chapters will see some oldie-but-goodies, so stay tuned for that.**

**Pilot: Now then, leave a review and tell us what you guys think.**

**A TV Tropes page would be greatly loved.**

**And We will see ya when we see ya.**


	25. Horse Soldiers

I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

Shep had already passed out; but Garth was still awake and taking the high altitude like a champ. It was nice to play catch up with him, after setting up a private channel between the two of us of course.

Most everyone was either asleep; or were vomiting into small doggie bags. Very few were awake and mostly unaffected like Garth or Myself; Kal and Ash were both leaning against each other, passed out cold.

I smirked, _Seems that Ash has mostly gotten over her xenophobia. If her noises of pleasure last night were any indication._ I thought to myself._ Just hope Ziva impressed upon them that duel Amino Acid's mean that both are interchangeable now._

In spite of my thoughts, I was happy for them; they both deserved the win.

My smile faded as I remembered that in spite of the fact that Canon was going off the rails; the _choice_ might still happen. Shaking my head to banish these unpleasant thoughts, I was rocked as the VTOL descended slightly; pulling the microphone down to my mouth and turning it back on, I asked, "Are we descending?"

"_Yes Major, We are descending, ETA is five mikes." _The Pilot replied coolly.

"Intentionally?" I asked.

It said a lot about the life I lived when _that_ was my first question to the Pilot; _"Say again Nomad?" _He asked.

"Intentionally?!" I repeated, shouting into the mic now to make sure he heard what I was saying.

"_Yes Sir, five mikes to landing."_

That was good enough for me, and I reached over and violently shook Shepard awake. She immediately began thrashing around to wake herself up, reaching for her gun on instinct before she remembered where she was.

Shepard looked over at me with a 'what the hell?' expression on her face.

I just held up five fingers, and she immediately understood; and thus began the wake up call.

* * *

Everyone had woken up in waves as the VTOL's descended towards their destination.

Shepard was one of the first thanks to Major Lee practically punching her awake, and looked out the gunner's door to see rocky outcroppings and the side of a mountain. It wasn't until she saw a rippling of camo-netting that she realized they were over their destination.

She gave a sharp whistle over the comms, and everyone sat up just before the vehicle bumped down onto the landing zone. Thirty seconds later, they were all kneeling around their gear and the two supply drops as the VTOLs took off again.

Once the dust settled, a scruffy human dressed in brown who matched Bowman's description perfectly hustled over while keeping hunched down. "Don't stand up straight. You are?"

The security check seemed excessive, but she had to respect the diligence. "Shepard with TF 1-4-1. This is GT-Leshy." she nodded to Garth and his team.

"Bowman, IAA Field Team Liaison. Let's get out of the open. We have patrols out chasing EA fighters away, but a sniper team could still slip through the cracks." He explained, immediately grabbing one of the bags that they had dropped off to help out; and began walking towards the fort.

Everyone shouldered a pack and grabbed a crate, then followed Bowman into the Forward Operating Base. "Welcome to FOB Alpha-one." He announced, gesturing to the area with a sarcastic smile; "We call it the Alamo."

Fort Ulysses was positively opulent compared to the outpost they were now in; several trenches and fox-holes had been dug into the earth to accommodate equipment depots and observation and defensive points, while a couple of soldiers, a mixture of local Fighters Kaftans and armored vests and ethnic Han in OD-Green uniforms coming out of tunnels.

Shepard immediately found herself dissatisfied with the almost lackadaisical attitude most of the defenders seemed to have; and looked over at Lee, "Have Schultz, and Wizard come inside with us; spread the rest out and augment the perimeter. Battle Buddy teams, no one goes anywhere alone." She ordered, even as she kept following Bowman.

Lee nodded and split off to relay her orders.

As the team leaders entered the center building in the compound, Shepard heard Ash murmur behind her; "Uh… they know that everyone died at the Alamo right?"

Jane had to resist the urge to spin around and yell at Ash for jinxing them like that; but she restrained herself. She was mollified when she heard Kal whisper back, "I think, _Inszel_, it would be best if you kept that tidbit to yourself. See you later alright?"

"Be safe." Was all she heard Ash say. If it had been some kind of action or war movie, Jane was sure that they would have kissed; but this was real life, and there was no way either of them were going to give up _that_ kind of information to potential spys.

As they walked inside, Jane found herself having to duck to avoid banging her head on the roof of the dirt and clay building. The four team leaders followed Bowman into a small hay floored room with a long coffee table in the middle of it.

Persian style rugs, or at least that was what they looked like to Jane, decorated the wall.

Lee stepped forward and set down the box of gifts that he had insisted they carry with them, stating that it was important for smoothing over relations with the General. Bowman seemed to immediately know what it was and popped it open, and upon seeing what was inside he scoffed; and he held up a bottle of Vodka, much to Jane's silent horror.

There was also a bunch of credit chits, and horse feed in the box as well.

"Huh, this is great; yeah this'll go over _real _well on a muslim planet." Bowman chuckled, not really taking seriously the great potential offense the gift may bring.

Lee shrugged while Alenko and Kal stared at the bottle with similar expressions of horror, "It's not our job to pick out the gifts, just deliver them."

Bowman huffed again with the ghost of a smile on his face, and set down his rifle and gear, and pointed to the food and drinks on the table; "Tea is about as good as you can expect; really weak at best. Help yourself to that dish right there; the bread's okay, and I have no idea what's in the center there but it's fuckin' delicious." He said.

Kal sat down, wincing as his backwards bowed legs were not meant for human chairs; "So what's the lay of the land here?"

"Well…" Bowman said, not missing a beat; "Our mission here is to assist General Malik Kamalov and his militia in a spearhead to this Eayan Allah facility out here in the mountains. Dunno what this facility is, or why it's so important; beyond the fact that no one can even get close to it or even look at it without getting shot." He said, setting out some maps for the four of them to look at.

"Know anything about General Kamalov?" Alenko asked next. "And where is he?"

"He's currently out in his mountain base; but he'll be back soon enough. And as to what I know about him… well not much." Bowman admitted, leaning back in his chair as he munched on some of the center mystery food. "He was a pro-Systems Alliance fighter during the initial subjugation invasion; started his own militia when he was sixteen. They called it the 'boys battalion' since they were all school children. Him, his right hand man, and a handful of his deputies are all that's left. The SA initially supported him, but then cut them loose when he began showing his Trotskyist-Maoist beliefs." Bowman explained, setting his food down and sipping some tea.

"So... how worried do we need to be over these guys selling us out?" Lee asked Bowman, taking some tea of his own.

The spook shrugged, "Uh, I'd be pretty fucking worried. Look, my job is to read people for a living, and I got nothing from this guy. I only know three things about him, he has a love-hate relationship with the Imam that goes both ways; he hates Eayan Allah, and EA really, _really_ hates him."

Jane pursed her lips, "Love and hate relationship?" She asked, "I would expect the two to absolutely despise each other."

Bowman shrugged, rifling through the other gifts in the crate; pulling out a Soviet Era Makarov Pistol with an admiring eye; "I think it's a sort of grudging respect; they both appreciate and understand power, and terror as a means of governance." He held up the Makarov, "This'll go way better, the guy loves Russian weaponry as far as I can gather."

He set it back in the crate, while everyone else sat around and stewed over his words; "Um, what languages do you guys speak?" Bowman suddenly asked.

August went to open his mouth, and the Spook shook his head and pointed at Jane, Kal, and Kaiden; "I know you Ghosts know enough languages to get by well enough; but these three are unknowns. Your translators only work one way, they translate what you hear; not what you speak." He explained.

Kal shrugged, "I'm Quarian, so my native _Kheelish_ and passable English."

Bowman shrugged, "Eh, enough of the fighters understand English; and since you're an Alien they'll understand and won't be insulted. You two?" He asked.

Alenko shrugged, "Smattering of Ukrainian, English, Spanish, and my Russian is rusty but still passable."

Jane shook her head, "Mandarin, Spanish, English, and passable _Kheelish_."

Bowman snorted while August asked in turn, "What languages does General Kamalov speak?"

The spook's eyes glazed over as he struggled to remember; "Lets see, Arabic, Dari, Pashtun, Uzbek, Mandarin, Kurdish, and Russian; so you guys have got two languages going for you."

"What, he doesn't speak English?" Jane was surprised; while there was no official language for the Systems Alliance, the unofficial default was English because of things like all Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots required to speak, and understand English with little to no accents.

Bowman shrugged, "If I'm honest with myself he probably does; but he doesn't speak it around me to try and throw me off balance." He admitted. "Alright, we got about five hours to sundown; and I've been awake for twenty hours at this point, so I'm gonna hit the hay." The IAA spook stood up and started walking out of the room, grabbing his rifle as he did so.

"Just a word of warning; make sure you have at least four people awake at all times. I'm left alone because they trust and respect me; you guys? You're unknown, so don't expect them to roll out the red carpet."

* * *

I kept an eye on the perimeter.

Shepard stood next to me, since she was my battle buddy for this shift. "You see our shadows?" I asked; glad that my balaclava hid my mouth. Neither men were close enough to hear, and so long as we kept our voices down they would have no clue what we were talking about.

She nodded, "Yup, mine is an older gent that could be my grandfather in all honesty."

I gave a non-committed hum as I looked outward into the mountain ranges, "A younger man for me, he's around his mid-thirties; but he's nice enough once I got around the language barrier. My Mandarin is rusty but passable, and his english isn't too hot; but both of us combined can string together a few sentences." I said.

After a few moments, I asked; "What about you? Is he giving you any trouble?"

Jane seemed to scoff at it, "Quite the contrary, he seems to be chasing away any trouble that comes near me." Her face was mostly hidden by her Shemagh, but her eyes softened; "He's a nice old man, insisted on having tea when he found out I knew he was my shadow."

I smiled lightly behind my balaclava; As much as I didn't trust these folks, Shepard was a good judge of character. If she thought the man's intentions were genuine, that was good enough for me.

"I saw Kal and Ash's shadows." She looked at me, and I could tell she was a little confused. "They're kids, a boy and a girl; I think they might be either twins, or half siblings with the same father."

"Child soldiers…" She said coldly.

I just shrugged, I had long since become desensitized to things like that; but I still didn't like it. In the old days, I would have demanded the kids come home with us at gunpoint; but that was the last thing either probably wanted. They wanted to live and die here on their homeland.

"Hm… Probably around six years old; eight at the absolute oldest." I started, and then heard footsteps to my left. I turned, and smiled lightly in amusement; "Speak of the devil."

It was Kal and Ash, both glancing over their shoulders as they approached; both looking aggravated. Kal gestured for the kids to hang back; and both did so, staring at the adults with wide doe like eyes.

I glanced at their weapons, and my amusement turned to slight surprise at seeing that the boy was carrying an honest to God Pattern 1914 Enfield; and the girl was carrying an honest to God Lee-Enfield SMLE, both rifles beaten to hell and back, but were doubtlessly the real thing.

Ash and Kal walked up, and Kal didn't waste a beat by whispering; "Hey Uber, Nomad; see those kids right there?"

I didn't say anything; while Shepard gave an absent nod of assent, "Skipper, neither of us can even take a piss without these kids up in our business; now I wouldn't care so much if they weren't carrying guns." Ash hissed, glancing back at the two child soldiers.

I just huffed a chuckle, "Well it is pretty fascinating." smirking at the furious glares both gave me.

"Well how about you guys stop giving them treats." Shepard joked, clearly trying to ease them into the idea that those two kids were assigned to protect _them_, not the other way around.

"That's the thing Skip, we don't give them shit; they just follow us around smiling the whole time with their little pee-shooters." Ash snapped, keeping her voice down.

I sighed, it was always hard breaking down the realities of this planet to first timers; but I had practice with it by this point. "You two don't get it do you?" I asked, sweeping my eyes out towards the perimeter again.

Their expressions morphed into one of confusion; "Get what Nomad?" Kal asked, casting a glance back towards the two kids; who were excitedly chatting in Dari.

I swept my free arm towards all the Militia fighters, "These guys? They're all protecting _us_. Any one of us gets hurt or killed; the General will probably execute the person he thinks is responsible, including their families."

I pointed at the two kids, even as Kal's silver eyes dimmed to almost nothing; and I could see in the approaching evening darkness that Ash's were welling up with tears. "Those two? My guess is that they're probably war orphans. They look similar enough that I think they're twins or half siblings from the same father; you know, since men can take multiple wives in Islam. They were probably starving in the streets, and they just so happened to be naturally good with guns; so the General brought 'em on as snipers. They shoot EA and Batarians and do whatever task he assigns them, they get food privileges." I had turned to face the two sergeants fully by this point, careful that I didn't sweep anyone with my rifle.

"And those poor two kids have got _you_." I pointed my fingers at them. "And either they see you as surrogate older siblings, or replacement parents." I turned to Ash who looked ready to protest such an idea, "And keep in mind Gunny, the average age for first time mothers on these planets is fifteen years old; first time fathers is sixteen." I poked each in the chest with my fist to punctuate my point, "Now be nice to the Kids, got it?"

They both nodded, and I sighed and turned to Shepard; "Their turn for the shift?" I asked, having lost track of time, but ready to go to sleep.

"That it is." She replied, slinging her rifle and walking up to the two Sergeants with a cheeky grin on her face. "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. 'Reegar; It's a boy and a girl."

I burst out laughing in spite of myself, and Shepard quickly joined me; the rest of the Militiamen in the compound staring at us in confusion as we walked back to the central hut. I was still laughing and giggling like an idiot even as I lay down on the straw floor and went to sleep.

* * *

"_Dost/__Péngyǒu__."_ Two young voices could be heard from the perimeter berm. Jane moved silently, allowing the Camo-cloak to hide her so she didn't startle the impromptu language lesson.

"Dust/Ping-you." Two more mature voices came from the same area, though slightly accented. She peaked over the entrance to the trench and saw Ash and Kal sitting in front of the twins.

There was some giggling before the twins enunciated the words again, though slightly slower. "_Dost/__Péngyǒu__." _While the two youths were entirely focused on Ash and Kal, Jane could tell the Sergeants were diligently scanning the horizon.

"Dost/Péngyǒu." Ash and Kal put great emphasis on the correct pronunciation, and elicited a short round of clapping.

"_Dost/__Péngyǒu__. Frond/Nayha." _

This time, it was the adults who chuckled. "Friend/_Nehya."_

"_Friend/Nehya, Dost/__Péngyǒu__."_ The twins happily extended their hands towards the older pair.

"That's right; friends." Ash beamed at the pair, even as she tracked a buzzard circling something halfway down the mountain.

Jane silently slipped by them on her way. Shock-and-Awe might win battles, but history showed it was Hearts-and-Minds that secured real victories.

* * *

I stepped up to the roof of the building to help get a better eye on the surrounding area.

"Hey boss, how long do you expect this campaign to last?" I heard Colt ask behind me; even as he pulled himself up, our shadows effortlessly pulled themselves up along with us. I had little doubts my own understood more English than he let on, but I was content to let the man think he still had the advantage.

"I don't know Colt." I replied, looking at my Casio Calculator Watch; it was archaic, but small and easily concealed. It helped when I needed it to do quick calculations that I couldn't manage in my head. "We've reached Mid-March; I say that at the Earliest we're done here by mid-April. At the latest… Well I think we'll be stuck here until the summer thaw in June."

I turned to look at him, and noted with amusement a slight shimmer that looked like heat waves; I ignored it, knowing that we didn't have anything important to discuss. "Why are you askin' anyway Colt? We've only been here a day."

He shrugged, keeping his eyes out in the Valley; "Just curious is all." A shit-eating grin spread across his face, "So… you think the Sarge and Gunny are all 'fixed'?" He asked.

I just huffed, "They'll be fine, they got it out of their system; so that biological urge is gone." I paused, then grimaced, "I guess we'll find out in six to ten months if Ziva's 'addition' to the cure works if they weren't Careful."

Colts face grew serious, "And if they weren't careful?" He asked.

I shrugged and turned away from him, noting that Jane had not moved from where she was cloaked; "Well… guess the cat will be out of the bag; and the Migrant Fleet will almost assuredly get destroyed to stop the Quarians from rising up again. The Alliance will probably have passed the Defense Treaty by the time we get back, so that means all out war between us and whoever attacked them." I mused, before turning my mind to something more optimistic; "At least we'll get to find out what a true human-alien hybrid looks like."

Colt snorted, pulling out a pair of binoculars; "How do you figure it Boss?"

"I ain't smart enough to know that Colt; I just know what Ziva tells me." I replied, adjusting my shoulder strap; "Externally, they would probably look Quarian; with a few exceptions like a wider range of skin tones and hair coloration, and five fingers and toes for greater dexterity and balance."

Colt lowered the binoculars and looked at me, raising an eyebrow behind his own balaclava; "And internally they would look mostly human." He finished.

I just nodded, "Hit the nail on the head."

Neither of us said anything for a long moment, until Colt asked; "So… how long until Kal and Ash demand we take those kids back to the _Normandy_ with us."

* * *

"_At least we'll get to find out what a true human-alien hybrid looks like."_

The thought rolled through Jane's head as she continued along the trenches. _Are we ready for that?_

She had certainly entertained the fantasy of her and Garrus having a child of their own. It in no way diminished her growing love for Eve, but there was still that small desperate part of her that wanted some piece of her and Garrus to live on.

The unfortunate, ugly side of the coin was that a great many humans were _not_ tolerant of interspecies relationships, much less the idea of interspecies hybrids. She had weathered plenty of poorly veiled insults and even threats because of her relationship with Garrus; some even coming from the SA Military PR agents. That was nothing compared to some of the horror stories she'd heard.

Families disowning a member because they were dating an Asari.

A Salarian businessman turning up dead after a date with a human.

People, both human and alien, simply disappearing with whole communities closing ranks against investigators.

_Are we even remotely ready to accept another species as our own, when we still have such bigotry about our own species?_

Truth be told, only the Krogan had gotten a more raw deal by the Galaxy… _no..._ by the Citadel than the Quarian race, and were it up to her they would be accepted with open arms. There were still some old nations back on earth that had fewer citizens than the entire Migrant fleet, while there were at least four cities with larger populations. The Systems Alliance certainly had the resources to spare.

A memory teased at her, from a time when she was still very small and she met a very old missionary.

_And now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three; but the greatest of these is Charity_

Words from more than 2100 years ago, that still sounded in the darkness, calling humanity to be better than itself.

She shook her head. _I'm starting to sound like August and the rest of these Ghosts._ Still, the message had merit. Maybe it was time humanity stood up and took the plunge. _We often only succeed when we're given no other choice. Maybe this is the push we need to be better than we are._

She continued down the trench, wondering about a bright future where she and Garrus could openly raise Eve in a world that could accept them.

* * *

I noticed Jane's shimmer moving away, and I didn't bother stopping her; I knew the two of us had given her a lot to think about.

"I suppose it's because we're still on a 24/7 schedule internally; that's why it feels like more time has passed than normal." Colt admitted.

I just snorted at his flimsy excuse for complaining, we had spent four days at 'Fort Ulysses', and two days here; he had had more than enough time to acclimate to the damned day night cycle. "We just need to be patient, all good things come to those who-"

I heard shouting in Dari, and both of us snapped our rifles into a shooting position as gunshots began to echo in the distance. Then both our shadows cheered and pointed their own Assault Rifles into the air and fired a burst of ammo.

"What is this? Is this the General?" I asked my escort, turning to look at him.

"_Shì! Shì! Tā dàole!"_ The man replied, nodding frantically and slinging his weapon.

I looked down into the compound, and saw all of my fellow Ghosts and the Marines piling out of the building with their weapons at the ready; Kal and Ash having pushed the twins behind them, their eyes bugging out of their heads as they caught sight of what was approaching.

I followed their gaze, and my Jaw dropped; while Colt choked on air, "Horses!? Motherfucking Horses?!" He asked in disbelief.

I just shook my head as Bowman jogged up to the approaching group; "And so it is; goddamned Horse Soldiers." Was all I could bring myself to say, quickly hopping down from the rooftop and walking up to the rest of the group.

Everyone was spread out in pairs, but they formed a loose circle as the Horses entered the compound; One horse that looked a little healthier than the others trotted up to Bowman and Shepard. Normally I would join them, but I kept my distance; my instincts telling me that identifying myself as a leader was not something I wanted to do.

I took the opportunity to look over the General; he was middle aged, with a shaved face except for a thick grey moustache on his lip. His hair was hidden under a Ushanka hat, but I could see his bangs peeking out from underneath; and I noted that they were also grey.

He was dressed in dull olive clothing, mixed with military gear and Armor; and I could see that he was examining Shepard. He wasn't eyeing her up because she was a woman, no... the look in his eye was that of an experienced killer judging whether or not he should fear or respect or ignore what was in front of him.

After a long moment, Shepard stepped forward and held out a hand; "General, I am Lieutenant Commander Jahenne Shepard of Task Force 1-4-1; and we're here to assist you with taking the Eayan Allah Facility." she said, Bowman translating for her.

The General took her words silently, and nodded; walking around her and looking over the rest of us.

He looked over at Ash and Kal, and his eyes flashed with an unknown emotion as he noted that the Human and Quarian were rather close together; and on top of that, they were both hiding the two sniper children behind them.

Then his eyes settled on Garth, and his eyes flashed again; this time with calculation and a little bit of mirth. I knew a test when I saw one, and to Garth's credit, he saw it too; as the General brushed past Bowman and Shepard with a smile, saying _"marhabaan 'akhi."_ Kissing him on each cheek, then gesturing for everyone to go inside the building while his men remained on guard.

Shepard and all the women looked a little offended but hid it well.

I just shrugged to Garth when he gave me a stunned look; and followed the man inside; even as I heard Brooks whisper to Alenko, "I guess the General prefers Blondes."

* * *

The General reverently looked over the antique pistol, rolling it this way and that in his hands. "_Pistolet Makarova,"_ he said in slightly accented Mandarin, "_one of the most enduring designs in human history; only the American M1911 can boast as long a service history."_

A number of people breathed a silent sigh of relief as he set the weapon aside to take in the remainder of the 'gifts'. His eyes and hand passed disdainfully over the bag of horse feed. He flicked his wrist and his _aide-de-camp_ lifted the sack and carried it out of sight.

His lips turned up into a grin as he took the bottle of Vodka out of the case. "_Ganbei!" _He twisted the cap off and downed a visible portion before slamming the bottle back on the table.

His eyes swept over the assembled group. "_I count only a handful of you with the eyes of a killer."_ His disdainful leer settled on Ash and Kal for a moment until they locked on Shepard. "_It will have to do._

"_Once my horses are rested, I will leave two squads here and take your '_Task-Force 1-4-1_' to __**Shān Yàosài**__._" He seemed to sense the confusion between the gathered people. "_I do not have your 'Gunships' and 'Shuttles'; only my horses, and only so many. The rest of your men shall stay here, and secure our supply line."_

Jane ground her teeth at the Generals declaration, she hated even entertaining the idea of splitting up the teams; but the Major beat her to it, which she was grateful for, since she was certain that there was no way that she would be as civil as Lee.

"_General." _He replied in Mandarin, giving Shepard a look of warning; _"How many people can you take with you to your Underground Mountain Base?"_ He asked.

The General seemed to think it over, _"Eleven at most, if you desire to take some of your more advanced 'equipment' with you." _He stated, before clapping his hands and standing up; _"We leave in ten minutes."_

And with that declaration, he walked out of the room.

Jane shared a look with August, Garth, and Bowman; the last of whom just shrugged, "I don't know how to ride horses, so my team and I can stay here and set up a proper supply line."

Bowman nodded, "Yes, and I want to go to the locals and see what kind of information I can dig up on the rebels here."

August looked at Jane, "Well I guess we've already decided on who is going then." He said, raising an eyebrow.

Jane nodded, "That we have; alright, let's mount up."

* * *

I walked up to the horse being provided for me, and I grimaced.

For a guy who had grown up on a farm, this was one of the sorriest excuses for a horse that I had ever seen. It was only barely taller than me, to the point that my legs would be below the damned things knees. Sighing, I walked up to it and slung my rifle; quickly hoisting myself up into the 'saddle' while grabbing hold of the reins.

'Saddle' was too generous a term to describe what I was sitting on.

It was nothing more than a bundle of blankets tied around the middle of the horse; with some ropes with knots in them tied into loops to make some stirrups. This was going to be painful, even to a moderately skilled rider like myself. And I had zero doubts the others were having loads of trouble behind me.

Pulling the reins and turning my horse around, I saw that I was right.

Kal, Tali, Nina, and Fon were all staring at the Horses with something akin to terror.

"What are we doing again?" Kal looked particularly uncomfortable.

Ash chuckled while brushing her mount's mane. "Looking like you're too scared. Just get on; what's the worst that can happen?"

Tali barked a laugh, then squeaked when her horse threw it's head at the sudden noise. "As a people who survive by virtue of jury-rigged life-support and 200 year old welds, we are not the people to ask about potential 'worst case scenarios."

Jane, Kaiden, and to my surprise Phil looked uncertain at best regarding the prospect of riding. Archer had hoisted herself up no problem, and Colt had done the same with his own horse; Ash had no problems either, which was a bit of a surprise to me to be honest. But all three of them seemed to be as uncomfortable as I felt with these poor imitations of saddles.

I gave a light flick of the reins, and my horse trotted forward; catching the rest of 1-4-1's attention.

"I guess that answers my question regarding who can ride." I snarked, unable to contain the smirk coming to my face at the sight of the Greatest Soldiers in the Galaxy cowering like children at the concept of riding a horse.

They all looked at me, and I just sighed; "Okay, put your right foot through the right loop in the stirrups; grab hold of the blankets in the middle, then jump and pull yourself up at the same time. Make sure you loop your other foot through the other stirrup." I explained.

The sound of horses galloping drew my attention, and I looked over to see the Generals vanguard had already started to move away. Looking back, I shrugged; "I don't think he's waiting for us guys, so let's get a move on."

The Quarians actually managed to mount swiftly, if unsteadily, by simply hopping up. Fon, Nina and Tali immediately clung to their horses necks, while Kal's horse tried to bolt were it not for Ashley's timely intervention.

"Easy there girl. If anyone's breaking Kal, it's me." She smirked at the muttered words that didn't carry over the distance. "Promises, promises. For now, just hang on; they'll follow each other."

The two kids actually jogged up to the Sergeants, and looked at the two with wide eyes; their old rifles slung over their backs. If I didn't know better, I was pretty sure the twins were giving the two adults the 'puppy dog eyes'.

Kal looked at the twins, when a thought came to him. "_Qí_?"

The two nodded, with the girl joining Kal and taking the reins, while Ash hoisted the boy into the saddle behind her.

Kal noticed the look Ash was giving him. "A good soldier knows when to defer to subject matter experts. Whoa!" He clutched the young girl around her waist as she guided the horse towards the rest of the herd.

Phil actually looked like he was afraid he would crush his horse with his bulk; but the fighters had given the big guy their biggest horse, which would register as a normal sized horse if a little lean.

He growled something under his breath, which sounded like the Ghosts creed; before he swung himself up. The Horse whinnied in protest, and Colt and Archer both grabbed the reins to stop the thing from bolting.

Jane and Alenko were the last to do so, and I guided my horse over and grabbed both their reins to give a helping hand. Jane climbed on first, and went deathly pale for a second before gritting her teeth.

Alenko took a breath, then did the same; and to my surprise, the Staff Lieutenant actually seemed to settle in rather well. Satisfied, I looked at Shepard with concern; noting that she seemed to be getting paler by the second. Deciding that she probably wasn't in a fit state to give the marching orders, I whispered to her; "You delegate to me to give the orders ma'am?"

She gave a grateful nod, and vowing to guide her horse I shouted; "Alright! Kick the heels to go fast, flick the reins to go forward, pull left to go left, pull right to go right, and pull back to stop. If your horse gets spooked, and you fall off while getting caught in the stirrups; shoot the damned thing." Everyone gave me startled looks, while Ash, Colt, and Archer all nodded in agreement.

Knowing that they needed a bit of elaboration, I explained. "These mountains are all rock, and these things can run up to an average of 88 and a half klicks per hour; not considering their sprinting abilities. We can find new Horses, we can't replace you."

Shepard was Ghost white now, which she had hidden by pulling up her Shemagh; while the rest looked uneasy. Nodding once, I shouted; "HAH!" driving my heels in my horse's flanks while keeping a tight hold on Shepards horse.

Together, we moved onto the rest of the herd; the rest of 1-4-1 joining us.

* * *

Archer hung out in the back of the group; but before they left, she knew that no one would believe this. Not without evidence anyway.

She quickly waved Garth and Bowman down, and gestured to the group.

To their credit, they instantly knew what she was talking about; and they pulled out camera's while she rejoined the group as Nomad gave his instructions. The two men took as many pictures from as many different angles as possible; but only one would forever be remembered by the Galaxy.

It got a good view of all of 1-4-1; all were mounted on their horses, and all were looking at Lee as he gave his instructions on how to control the horses, and his advice to shoot them if they got spooked and if the rider fell and got stuck.

Jane sat rigid and upright; her uneasiness in the saddle giving her a false commanding presence in that moment. Phil slouched forward on his mount which put him eye level to her. Colt and Archer both freely gestured with one hand at the Quarians while the other grasped their reins. Alenko's eyes were closed and his lips could be seen working, though nobody knew if he was praying, or just wondering what he was doing there. Ash had sidled up to Kal and was resting her free hand on his shoulder while he had a near death grip on his fellow rider. The twins were happily chattering between each other, their antique rifles slung across their backs.

Lee himself had his left hand on his massive Revolver, which was holstered under his left shoulder; and he was gesturing with his right hand while still holding the reins. In one of the only photos of him in combat, it was the one time he had his mask down. His Shemagh pulled tightly around his neck, his Jeep Cap pulled low over his head while his goggles were pulled up over the brim; his thick moustache looked well maintained as always, while his thick 5'oclock shadow showed just how long they had been there.

He had been in the middle of instructing the others to shoot the horses if spooked; and his gaze was laser focused and intense, the eyes of a killer.

* * *

**A/N: I honestly don't have much to say here, beyond being sorry for the slight delay.**

**Bowman, the IAA agent, is meant to show that while some like Harkin are amoral jackasses; that are better described as Thugs with Badges, others like Bowman are genuinely good people. ****The Warchief Ride was based on the movie '12 Strong'; as was the horses and the meeting with the General. It's a good movie, y'all should go see it; though I think it would have been better as a mini-series.**

**The 'Hybrids' is something of a cheeky little nod to our other story, the ME-HL crossover 'Half Life: Entanglement'; which I feel is **_**way**_** better than this story, so go give it a read.**

**Thats all I really have to say at the moment, how 'bout you Ian?**

**Ian A/N:As with my fellow author, there's not a lot to say here.**

**This, and the last chapter, are about setting up the coming chapter and its implications on the story as a whole. We are introduced to 'The General', and he will play a part in events unfolding across the Galaxy.**

**We have a few new faces, mostly the kids. 10 internet points if you can guess what's going to happen. **

**Pilot: Well then, that's it for today; the next side story will be uploaded Monday at around 10-11AM EST. Half Life: Entanglement will be updated Wednesday at 11 AM EST, and AGAS will be updated on Friday, 11 AM EST. **

**This will be the schedule we try to follow from here on out.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you guys think, the feedback helps a lot.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	26. Liberation

Kal looked through the binoculars, his horse snorting and pawing the rocks impatiently.

Kal absently reached forward and patted the steeds neck, "Shhh… calm _Nehya_, we shall be moving soon; I promise." He mumbled, while the horse flicked its ears in annoyance. After a minute he spotted it, the next village they would be _liberating._ Kal gave an absent huff, that damned word had resulted in more combat experience for him in the past few months; than in his seven years in the Migrant Fleet Marines.

He noted idly that he was turning twenty seven in about a month; he wondered how humans celebrated their Lifedays. Ash had told him how she had celebrated her twenty first Lifeday; that being getting absolutely wasted, and waking up mostly naked in a dumpster.

He watched as several Technicals patrolled around the village; and noted with distaste that they were rounding up Men and Boys and taking them into the biggest building in the village.

Kal had to resist the urge to growl in anger; as he watched children as young as Ara and Nek being taken.

"Sir? What happen?"

Kal lowered the binoculars and looked behind him with a sad smile; Ara looking up at him with wide eyes, her Lee-Enfeild still slung across her back as she tried to look around him to see down into the valley.

Her long black hair fell in front of her face, preventing her from seeing; and Kal quickly spun the horse around and guided it down away from the ridge line; _"Nothing Important Ara." _He replied in Dari.

It had become a part of their lessons, since the twins could now speak English somewhat coherently; and he and Ash had a basic understanding of how to speak Dari, the two would speak in Dari while the twins would speak in English when around each other to help increase fluency. They would only speak their native tongues to correct the other or ask for a word.

A huff drew him out of his thoughts, and he looked down to see the girl crossing her arms and looking down; her tanned skin and brown eyes reminding him of Ash in that pose. His amusement and thoughts were interrupted when she said in Dari, _"You never let us do anything…" _And she sounded close to tears.

Kal immediately hopped off the horse, and held out his hands; and Ara stared for a moment, before reluctantly allowing Kal to lift her down. Finding a big rock, he sat down and gestured for her to do the same.

"_Ara… Ash and I only want to protect you and Nek. You told us about your parents…" _Kal trailed off when Ara shuddered, and acting on instinct; he drew her into a sideways hug, which the girl quickly returned.

"_You want to protect us from seeing all the violence; but we have already lived a life of one." _Ara replied sadly.

Kal nodded slowly, _"Perhaps you have, but that does not mean you need to continue living one."_

Ara looked out over the village. _"What other choice do we have? You and the __**Yōulíng **__will depart once you are done here; then Nek and I will go back to fighting." _There was a resignation decades older that Ara should know in her voice.

Kal pulled her into a deeper hug, putting his other arm around her; and the girl unconsciously snuggled into his arms. He smiled lightly, remembering what he had told Nomad back when they had their little reunion on the Citadel; _So this is what it's like…_ He thought.

After a moment, he said; _"Ara… Ash and I would rather die than leave you and your brother behind."_ He smiled again as the girl looked up at him, distrust in her eyes; but also hope.

"You would take us to the stars?"

"We will." Kal promised.

* * *

I trotted my horse up to the last outcropping of cover in the entire valley; that being a giant rock that had probably been carried down the last time there was a massive rainstorm and flood.

Probably a few hundred years ago; if I were to lobby a guess.

I swung off the back, and plopped down onto the ground with a grunt; I may have spent the past few months riding this horse, but that didn't mean it was any more comfortable than the first time I had ridden the stupid thing.

I pulled my riding goggles down from above my jeep cap's brim, and quickly flicked on the night vision capabilities while unslinging my Beowulf and sweeping the series of shallow trenches that lead to the Village.

_Looks like Kal was right, they do dig fast._ I mused, noting that much of the Earth was freshly dug.

I reslung my Beowulf and grabbed my MP5SD, making sure it was loaded and ready to go; and thanking my lucky stars that Garth and Bowman had been able to send it up to the mountain base. I glanced over my shoulder as I heard a slight shuffling; and saw Colt sidling up to me, his own MP5SD drawn and ready.

"We good?" I whispered.

He nodded and tapped the side of his helmet, "We're good Boss; private comms are now secure."

I gave him a thumbs up and switched on the private comms to Archer and Phil; "1-2, 1-4 status?"

"_We've reached the other side of the village boss; we'll start infiltration now."_ Archer replied.

"Copy that, radio silence unless going loud; or you hit a serious snag." I ordered.

"_Understood 1-1, 1-2 out."_

I quickly activated my cloak while adjusting the stock to my MP5; and I heard Colt do the same, before he sighed "Boss, you get the feeling we're being used?" He asked.

I snorted, "I don't think it, I know it; we'll talk about it later Colt." I replied, the finality in my tone settling the matter. It was a little rude, but as much as I wanted to talk about it I couldn't bring myself to face the reality of our situation; that being, the General was hiding something from us.

And I wasn't just talking about the General of the Militia.

Colt and I tied our horses up, and silently slipped into the nearest trench; a whole network of the damned things criss crossed across the valley around the village, which would stop any attacks unsupported by Armor dead in its tracks.

But it gave us more than enough cover in the night, and the general lack of night vision gear by the EA occupiers gave us the advantage.

As we snuck around, I began mentally recording every single hole in the trench walls that led to underground bunkers; even as Colt silently attached a sticky bomb to the entrance to each of them. While it may not kill all the people exiting the bunkers, or collapse the tunnels; it would certainly cause confusion in the ranks, and that was good enough for us.

It took about twenty minutes of what was essentially silent crouch walking before we finally exited the trench and reached the town.

I took note of the dirt and clay wall surrounding it, and with a nod to Colt; I pulled myself up over it, and hopped down to the ground, quickly drawing my MP5 as I did so. The four of us had no intention of going loud, since we would have to spend the night here; and any dead bodies would trigger a search, but it never hurt to be careful.

A quiet _thump_ told me that Colt had managed to vault the wall behind me; and I turned to check to make sure he was still okay.

He dusted some sand off his Cloak, and gave a thumbs up.

"_I take point."_ I signed, prompting another nod as we quickly began to move forward through the village.

It was slow going, as with the village being under military occupation and due to be attacked; you would think the civilians would be under curfew. Adding to that, with the winter finally beginning to turn to summer after the past few months of near constant wind and snow; It was finally raining rather than snowing.

There were a number of large fire pits in the village, and they lit up entire streets and the village squares; and there were crowds of twenty or so people just hanging around in the fire pits.

"_Incoming, three hostiles 2 O'clock."_

I immediately pressed myself under the eaves of one of the houses; making sure that I was sheltered from the rain so my Cloak would not leave a shimmer. I heard the wet footsteps as the three militiamen stalked past; grumbling about the rain, and moaning that the Prostitutes at the Brothel were going to be charging extra because of the cold.

I had to resist the urge to snort; _Islamic fundamentalists, and they still have hookers and prostitutes. Who would have thought._ I mused. Of course, hypocrisy was not a cultural trait ingrained into one population.

I frowned as the sound of crying reached my ears.

Shaking my head, I pressed forward; Colt sticking close to me as we weaved back and forth between alleyways, trying to stay out of the rain as much as possible. I shook my head again as I realized that the sound of crying was getting closer. The father in me immediately winced, as I recognized the sound as that of an infant that wanted its parents and was hungry.

I grimaced, but kept walking; as much as I wanted to, I couldn't break into someone's house just to check up on a child.

Colt seemed to share my discomfort, as he whispered, _"Jesus, someone needs to change that kids diaper or somethin'."_

"I read you on that brother." I replied, as the sound got louder and louder the closer we got to the center of the village. Then I realized something, the sound of the infant crying wasn't being muffled by the mud and clay walls of any of the houses.

Was it just some baby and its parents caught outside in the rain?

"_Another Patrol incoming at 12 o'clock."_ Colt hissed, and I cursed as I slipped into the alleyway; and winced as the infant's wails had reached an ear splitting level. I froze in my tracks as I realized something, even as the guards voices drew closer; and my camouflage adapted to its environment.

The baby's cries were coming from inside the alley.

I slowly turned towards the sound, already feeling my blood start to boil; and saw that it was a young woman, probably in her teens at the oldest, holding an infant that was crying. She stared at me in wide eyed terror, but said nothing as the patrol reached the entrance to the alley.

All three snapped to the woman, who I realized had no face covering; and all three sneered in disgust. _"Ah… another one from the brothel, and it seems she has her little babe with her too."_

"_Who do you think knocked the whore up?" _A second asked, as all three began to walk into the alley; the woman taking a step back while her child began crying even harder.

"_Who cares; she had a child out of wedlock. We must bring her to the square for punishment; the child too." _The third snapped.

The other two hummed in thought; before the first replied, _"Sure… why not." _

My blood turned to ice, as the three militiamen stalked past me towards the baby and the terrified woman; the baby's wails had seemingly increased tenfold. I stared in horror as they walked up to it; and stared down at her, expressions mixed between pity and contempt.

I couldn't take it anymore; I drew my MP5SD, and took aim at the one that had suggested for the group to stone her to death.

I took a breath… then released it.

_PFT!PFT!_

Number three dropped to the ground dead as a spray of blood erupted from what used to be his head. The other two whipped around in surprise, at their comrades' sudden demise. The woman gave a strangled shriek in terror at the sudden bloodshed.

_PFT!PFT!_

Number two, the one that had callously joked and wondered about who had impregnated the woman; dropped from the hole in his heart, if he even had one, and the hole in the brain. Number three opened his mouth to scream even as he unslung his AK, while the woman had clamped a hand over her mouth.

_PFT!PFT!_

I blinked in surprise as he dropped to the ground dead; and turned to see Colt striding up, a fire in my fellow Ghosts eyes as he watched the barbarian drop dead to the ground. Exchanging nods, I slung my submachine gun and walked over to the infant and her mother; taking off the _Shemagh _wrapped around my neck, and grabbing another that wasn't bloody off the body of one of the dead militiamen.

Without a word, I walked up in front of the young woman, who I could see was in her mid teens at the oldest; her child was still crying, but had seemed to have tired itself out. Working quickly, I cleaned the filth and blood off of her face using the _Shemagh_ I had taken off the terrorist; and quickly made sure that no one had heard the exchange as I did so.

Once that was done, I quickly but gently wrapped her face up in my _Shemagh_ to help cover her face.

"_Boss! We gotta move." _Colt whispered.

I turned to look at him, and nodded; even as the woman drew her baby close to her chest as she kept rocking it. I just gave a nod, whispering _"Peace be with you sister."_ Before we disappeared into the night rain.

* * *

As we reached the center building of the village, somehow without being detected, I drew my Hi-Standard. The commander of the enemy garrison lived here; his assissination would seriously disrupt the enemy ability to defend. And hopefully he had a map that led to the factory or research facility or whatever it was that we had been sent to destroy.

I gestured for Colt to take point, and he nodded and drew his own Hi-Standard.

_Click-Clack_.

I smiled and gave a soft sigh in relief; Archer and Phil had made it with no problems.

I chinned my mic, and hissed; "We hit a snag, carry out as planned; will brief you inside."

"_Understood lead."_ Archer replied.

With that done, I nodded to Colt; and he quickly picked the lock to the door. We couldn't risk the amount of noise a normal breaching procedure would emit; so we had to sneak in. Not a difficult process all things considered; at least until you considered the fact the house didn't have any windows to crawl through.

_click..._

Colt quickly pushed the door open and slipped inside; and I followed suit a moment later.

The lack of guards was not a big surprise, as the lax security on the perimeter and in the town itself indicated this commander was particularly arrogant in his belief that he was safe from any form of retaliation.

Well… it was time to change that line of thinking.

Colt quickly peeled off to the left, and I took the right; the kitchen, which was beside the stairs. My CROSSCOMM Glasses highlighting Archer and Phil in blue as they pressed in from the other side of the house; having presumably snuck in through windows.

I swept the kitchen, as a series of soft _pff_'s reached my ears from Colt's and Archers respective rooms. Upon making sure there really was nothing in the kitchen, I circled back towards the stairs.

The other three were already waiting for me; and I jerked my head towards the stairs.

Colt took point, while I brought up the rear; keeping my MP5 pointed down towards the main entrance. Any curious militiamen or locals now would derail the whole op. There was only one big room on the second floor, and the walls were lined with desks and lamps and chairs. The only exception to this was a single cot; where our target, who we confirmed after referencing his face with the photograph we had been provided, was snoring away.

As much as I wanted to take him alive, we couldn't. Our orders from both the General and from Shepard were quite clear, the risk of him escaping or being recaptured was too great. I gestured for the other three to begin searching the documents for the maps and locations of the facility while I walked up to the enemy commander.

I glared at him for a good long moment; then raised my hand, and pulled the trigger. He jerked slightly, and his snoring cut off; but nothing more beyond that.

"_Boss, we got the map and location; saving it to the CROSSCOMMS now." _Colt's said.

"Good…" I replied absently.

"_Sir… If I may ask, what happened that made you so mad?" _Archer asked, sounding very suspicious.

I just sighed, "Phil, search the kitchen for any hiding places and ammunition; if only so we don't have to steal some. I've got a story to tell you guys; and we got till morning before the attack."

* * *

Shepard walked through the battlefield, absently checking any dead laying on the ground to make sure they really were dead. She had yet to hear from Fireteam Kingslayer beyond the fact that their mission was a success.

She was _really _not liking this planet more and more; and just wanted to get back to the nice comfy _Normandy_, and be with Garrus and Eve. Hell, she was willing to go to England and deal with her fussy extended relatives, all of them griping at her that "A Lady of the House of Shepard must marry a human", and all that fun stuff.

The Lee's had seemed like a much more stable blue blooded family in comparison to the Shepard's.

"Ell Cee…" _Speak of the devil and he shall appear._ She thought, and turned to see August walking towards her; his Balaclava stuffed into his pocket, and his Beowulf slung around his shoulder. She noted with amusement that he had regrown the mutton chops he had worn on the citadel; but the nicks on his chin and cheeks told her that he had used his knife to do so.

As the Major walked up to her, he pulled out a folded up sheet of paper and handed it to her. "Got the location of that damned complex Grant wants us to capture. We take it, and we go home to the _Normandy_; simple as that." He stated, turning his eyes outward to the trenches.

"How close are we?" She asked, already fearing the worst as she unfolded the map.

"Not far in all honesty; it looks like the General is keeping his end of the Bargain, all these towns and villages we've been liberating have been getting us closer and closer to the facility while shoring up our flanks and rear. I'm thinking we call in Garth's team and Bowman and hit the facility as soon as possible." He explained, taking off his glasses and cleaning them absently.

The familiar rush of potential action mixed with her desire to be back on the Normandy; to be home was almost intoxicating. It reminded her of another long distance mission on another arid world.

She shook the painful memory aside for the moment. "Not until after we have eyes on the Aye-Oh. Let's do this clean and by the numbers so none of the brass on _either _side has to call us back here." She spat into the dusty berm that used to be a defensive trench.

Lee grimaced and shook his head; "Ell Cee, I respect and trust you a lot; and I'll follow your orders, but I want it known that I disagree ma'am. That facility must know that the Army's getting closer and closer with each passing day; and they have to be tightening their defenses with every minute we give them. For God's sake they _shoot _anyone that even sees the facility, much less knows about it." He pointed out, taking a long puff from his cigar as he did so.

Neither said anything for a long while, and then Lee said out of nowhere; "Grant is hiding something from us."

"He's a General, and we aren't; there's a lot of things he doesn't tell us because it isn't our business to know." Jane settled into a parade rest stance to cover her own unease; why the hell were they out here instead of chasing Saren down?

August just grimaced, "Remember how pissed you got when you realized my Ghosts and I were keeping secrets from you? More specifically secrets that nearly got us all killed and would have been a great benefit to know about? Yeah… I'm getting that vibe here. I don't have the evidence, but my gut tells me something's off… and the last time I didn't listen to my gut; I nearly got my jaw punched off." He replied, looking off into the distance as the rest of 1-4-1 trotted around the perimeter on their horses.

Jane simultaneously wanted to call Lee out on his borderline Gross Insubordination, and equally to openly voice her own concerns. But in the end, she was the Commander. Lee hadn't said anything that out-and-out required disciplinary action, and he wasn't wrong.

"We have our orders, Major; and until those orders cross the line, then neither do we." She stepped beside him and kept her eyes on the horizon. "We'll do it your way. Once we have eyes-on, your people will act as forward observers to make sure there aren't even two bricks left stacked when the dust clears."

Lee nodded and smiled; and Jane noted with amusement that he almost went to salute, but seemed to check the motion. The two nodded, and went back to their respective duties. But no matter what she did, Jane couldn't clear the doubts now clouding her mind.

She swore to investigate further once she got back to the _Normandy_, until then she had a job to do; and dammit was she going to make sure it got done.

* * *

Garrus buzzed in a mixture of amusement and impatience as San jogged around the hanger bay; the poor kid sweating like crazy, while he held an unloaded Beowulf over his head and dressed in full combat gear.

"Pick those knees up, San; you don't want to look sloppy now, do you?"

San's attention shifted to Garrus' left, where Eve's avatar stood smiling. She flickered into a strange outfit for a moment; a very… truncated outfit which included two strange fuzzy masses on her hands. "Go San!"

Garrus looked towards his 'daughter', who flickered back to her 'sweats-&-hoodie' look before he got a glimpse. He knew something was up, but it seemed to perk San up so he let it slide.

"One more lap, and then..."

"_All hands, general quarters; rig for maneuvers."_

Garrus turned to Eve, who had a distant look. "Sensors picked something up on the edge of Passive." She looked at him with a small amount of concern. "There's not supposed to be another ship in the system."

Garrus looked towards San, who had already stowed everything and was rushing towards engineering. He quirked a Turian grin. _Sharp kid; he might just make it. _"Thanks sweetie. Tell Pressley I'm on my way up." He told Eve.

Eve nodded and blinked out as he headed for the elevator.

That was another benefit to having an AI on board the ship; the damned thing actually moved between decks faster. Granted, the Quarians had needed to modify it; and Eve had needed to write a whole new program to control the stop and start protocols, but it was still _much_ better than the old one. In fact, Garrus suspected that he would be spoiled for the rest of his life; and that any regular elevators he entered from this point forward would be slow as hell.

He stepped onto the CIC deck into the comforting familiarity of Military Controlled Chaos. The sensor map was once again dominating the Galaxy Map Holo-table, while crew and technicians reported back and forth. Senior Lieutenant Pressley was standing watch next to the map. He held up a hand to keep Garrus quiet for a moment, just before an 'Anomaly' indicator lit up on the hologram.

"That's the third one inside our passive sensor range; no source of emission, just a blast of energetic particles like an FTL emergence."

Garrus considered the map. "The Varren?"

Pressley pursed his lips. "Looks like the Imam has learned yet _another_ new trick. I'm pretty sure this is their version of our own FTL scanner, but for the moment they're just probing."

Garrus buzzed in concern, not the least because this was a dangerous situation. He had a daughter now, and she was in danger right alongside him, to say nothing of the double fist of Quarian Pilgrims they had aboard. He wondered if this is what father had felt like when Garrus, Solana and Mother lived where he was stationed.

"Do we have a rough area where they might be?"

Charles panned back about half a light minute and waved to a general region. "We've had 'Spirit-sightings' along this area, but they're constantly changing course and I'm not inclined to pick a fight just yet by bracketing them and giving our position away." Pressley huffed and crossed his hands behind his back. "Like your Councilor Sparatus said; we want Balak, not one of his Allies' ships."

Garrus nodded, but his mandibles twitched in mild irritation. There just seemed to be something... _off_ about the way they were being directed in their pursuit of Saren and the Triple Alliance.

"Is it just me, or are we being given the runaround?" Garrus almost jumped at Pressley's nearly prescient question.

Garrus buzzed absently, even as the human officer continued. "The first real lead on the Imam's plans and operations we secured was the suit back on Noveria, and then we were suddenly called back to perform IT services? And now, instead of running down clues on either the suit _or _backtrack the team on Noveria, the Commander's dropped cold on some EA backwater while we're playing pattycake with a Varren because of a rumor Saren _might_ have come through here." Pressley scowled at the hologram. "Not even Command-by-Committee explains this complete lack of operational focus."

Garrus said nothing beyond a sharp nod of agreement, and a buzz of confirmation; as Pressely went back to tracking the Varren.

Garrus winced as he felt his earpiece buzz slightly, while Eve whispered; _"Dad; It's Councilor Sparatus, he wants to speak with you regarding 'rumours of AI on the Normandy'."_ She said it in fluent and perfect Palavanese; ensuring that no one but Garrus would understand it.

His mandibles tightened in dismay.

They had kept the illusion and deception going for a healthy amount of time, but it seemed that the game was up now regarding Eve. Still, Garrus and Jane had their legal loophole; and If it meant hijacking the ship and fleeing to the terminus to protect his daughter, then so be it.

Shaking his head, Garrus announced; "Excuse me Gentleman, the Councillors want to speak with me; I'll be in the conference room if you all need me." The other officers gave absent nods; and Garrus quickly walked to the conference room, rehearsing his speech over and over in his head as he did so.

The Original plan had called for both him _and_ Jane to make the argument, but with Jane still at least a week away from _finally_ completing the groundside campaign; according to her lost comm's burst giving them updates anyway, he would have to make the case himself.

"Eve… have you managed to perfect that Turian Teenaged girl projection yet?" He asked, thinking that it would make Sparatus more sympathetic than if she appeared as a human.

"_Well… yes, I've used it to scare San a few times when we're… hanging out, but why?" _She asked, sounding very confused.

Garrus didn't like that pause, but ignored it as he had more pressing matters at the moment. "You know how Joker likes to joke about how it's easier to ask forgiveness rather than permission?" Eve nodded hesitantly as she shifted into her 'Turian Form'. "Well, we're about to put that to the test. Go ahead and connect the Councilor."

* * *

**A/N: we finally get our first Ghost Recon-esque mission for the Ghosts while under 1-4-1. Beyond that, I don't have much to say about this chapter in particular beyond the cracks growing larger.**

**I **_**do **_**have something to say about the development behind this chapter.**

**It was going to be darker, **_**a lot darker**_**; and it was going to be another thing based on the realities of life in the middle east, along with China and India. That being, how infant girls are treated.**

**Originally, Nomad was going to come across a mountain of dead infants; with a still live one recently being added to the pile. All would have been female, because the cultures in India, the Middle East, and China all are biased against them; they want a son to carry on the family name and so that they can have better opportunities in life, and potentially bring their families up in social status.**

**In India, it's gotten better; but in the Middle East and China?**

**Yeah… alright, what about you Ian? **

**Ian A/N: Another new face and another Cannon cameo, so some fun there. We begin to see the frayed edges of the intelligence apparatus. What could be meant by the deal between General Grant and the Warlord? No spoilers, so I can't really say more.**

**I did enjoy the snippet on the Normandy, both the wholesome Papa Garrus moment, and letting Pressley shine at what he does. **

**Pilot: Alright, Check my profile for the link to the discord.**

**I am still taking submissions for GST side stories **_**and**_** the challenge I have posted on my profile.**

**I again apologize for the delay for HL:E, but college completely blindsided me.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you think, the feedback helps us greatly.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	27. A Quarrel in Hell

They stared at the holotable for a moment, before sharing a look.

Garrus and Eve both began to shift to something resembling parade rest, though Garrus had to stop himself from looking at Eve every few seconds. As much as he loved her for who she was, he still couldn't help but marvel over how much her 'Turian Form' resembled his sister when she was that age.

Though as she stood there, he noted that she was slowly becoming an almost… Turian version of Jane.

Eve cleared her throat and hummed and mumbled a few words; giving a Turian grimace as she struggled with her sub vocals for a moment. "I may have read all about the physiology behind and how to do it in the past few minutes to further perfect it, but sub-vocals are _way_ different to what I was expecting." She admitted.

Garrus gave a reassuring buzz, and Eve's incredibly tense posture relaxed somewhat; before she gave him a confused look. Garrus smiled and looked back at the holotank, still waiting for the Councilor to connect to the ship. _It seems that her programming is evolving._ He noted, as her response had seemed to be instinctual.

Granted, at the speeds AI could think at, it may have been a very convincing fake out; but if there was one thing that Eve had picked up from both her parents, it was an inability to lie convincingly on the spot.

"I see that you've picked up on the ability to hear on the sub-harmonic frequency and interpret its meaning." Garrus noted.

Eve opened her mandibles to say something, when the holotank lit up; and Councilor Sparatus appeared. The man's days as a politician had not dulled his instincts in spycraft and soldiery one bit; and he immediately zeroed in on Eve, taking note of the Vakarian Clan engravings and paint on her face.

Garrus also noticed that Sparatus seemed to be comparing Eve's face with Garrus's; and seemed to immediately see the connection between them.

The past few months had allowed San, Adams, and Garrus to make _many_ improvements to the Eezo-Holographic projectors in the ship; and Eve's own practice and programming had allowed her to dispense with the dull Sapphire glow that had surrounded her body back when she had been first installed into the ship. She looked real and organic to the naked eye; and when compared to Sparatus' Holotank, the Councilors communication set seemed downright primitive in comparison.

Garrus's self reassurances came to a stop when Sparatus turned his gaze over to Garrus and quirked an eye plate; "Hm… I wasn't aware that you had any biological children Deputy Spectre; my congratulations on finding her." He snarked.

Eve winced, and shuffled slightly behind Garrus; still the equivalent to a fourteen year old, and still shorter than even Jane as Turian females hit their growth spurts later than human females did.

Garrus stood firm and stared the Councilor down; the man taking note of the 'Turians' actions. "How old is she in any case? Fourteen or fifteen? If that's the case then why is she not signed up for her service?" Spartacus continued, absently typing away at his data-slate.

On hearing no answer, he looked up at the two Turians; "Well? If Ms. Eve Vakarian isn't willing to answer, then would you be so kind as to answer for your daughter Deputy Spectre?"

Garrus took a breath and said, "With respect, Councilor, we know why you've called."

"I know, and as dedicated as you two and presumably Ms. Shepard are to maintaining this charade; if an idiotic buearacrat like me can effortlessly poke holes in your cover story, then you won't get very far once Tevos and Valern get their hands on the story. The only reason you aren't busted is because you were kind enough to send me the real story on top of the fake one ahead of time." The Councilor said, turning serious as he spoke. "Thank you for that by the way; otherwise you would have been arrested by Valern before I could have even had a chance to stop it."

Garrus was about to reply when the lighting changed and Pressley came on over the ship-wide comms.

"_All hands, brace for maneuvers."_

Garrus glanced at Eve who seemed just as confused until the ship bucked.

"The Varren just fired several missiles! I didn't sense a launch until after Mr. Pressley started moving us." There was both fear, and genuine curiosity in her voice; even as her sub-harmonics buzzed with worry.

"I'm assuming she's referring to Lieutenant Charles Pressley?" Sparatus cut in. "I'm aware of his record; he wouldn't have been posted to the Normandy Project if he wasn't a top-notch Fleet Operations officer, human or otherwise. As much as you may want to help, the crew can wait; unless you're about to be nuked or boarded that is, then that may be a little bit more important."

Garrus narrowed his eyes at how unseriously the Councilor was taking matters; but hit his omnitool, "Lieutenant Pressely, do you require my presence?" He asked.

"_Negative Sir, we have the situation well in hand; it seems we flushed them out, and they launched the missiles to divert our attention while they cut and ran." _The human replied, sounding unconcerned. _"And before you ask, we did get their outbound track. We're moving to begin _Spirit Hunt_ operations now."_

Garrus clicked his mandibles and looked at the Councilor, who simply looked back quizzically. "It would seem the Humans are learning some new tricks. Good; that's part of why we committed to this project. Though I _am _curious to know how… extensive your young charge is integrated into the ship."

* * *

Jane swept the night vision binoculars around the facility.

Everytime she spotted a guard, she would immediately hit the 'ping' button to mark the enemies; which would keep their position updated regularly, so long as someone had eyes on the person that was marked. It was a very impressive trick, and incredibly useful for the Ghosts no doubt; what with all the sneaking around they did.

"I got two more submachine gunners patrolling the geothermal generators." Nomad mumbled, and two more red pings popped up in said area.

"That makes it out to around… two hundred _visible_ hostiles on patrol; and an unknown number of civilian workers inside." Jane said, rubbing her eyes; the night sky having been up for _far_ too long in her opinion. It was summer for God's sake, the day cycle was supposed to be longer.

Still… she missed the 24 hour day night cycle; just a few more days at the absolute most, and she would be back on the nice comfortable Normandy.

"What's the plan Ell Cee?" Lee asked, jarring her from her thoughts.

She looked at him, and then inclined her head; "I defer to you Major, this is your area of expertise." She replied.

He hummed, "The Marines stay here; while both Ghost teams sneak in and plan charges all across the major structural supports inside. The Militia runs distraction while we work once we get inside." He posed.

Jane considered it, "Simple, Quick, and flexible; I like it." She stated, "All right, we'll do it your way. You brief the Ghosts, I'll brief the Marines."

* * *

"Yes… you are correct Ms. Vakarian; the ban on AI's only forbids their _intentional _creation. But that did not stop Tevos' predecessor from exiling the Quarian people and kicking them out of the council in a flagrant disregard for the treaties that we had signed with them." Sparatus buzzed, having long since pulled up a chair and sat down in it.

Garrus had done the same, checking up on Pressley every ten or so minutes; at least until it became clear that the _Varren _was likely going to get away, at which point he had stopped bothering.

Eve however, was not so calm.

Garrus grimaced as his AI daughter's Eezo-Holographic Projection paced around the conference room; both getting used to her 'Turian Form', and trying to think without using the ship's systems to do so. Neither of them had considered that Eve putting the majority of her 'consciousness' into her hologram had, in turn, brought her ability to process information down to that of a normal person.

That was one reason why this was taking so long; because Sparatus had ordered her to think with this handicap in place, and also to make sure that she could learn to act more Turian when she was disguised as one.

When alone or with friends, she could appear however she wanted; but until the origin of her creation and her species was open knowledge, she would have to appear as a Turian when in public. The reason for this was because of another Legal technicality that neither Garrus nor Jane had considered.

While both the Systems Alliance and Turian Hierarchy were equal in terms of gender laws; _culturally_, the Turian Hierarchy was still a little behind it's human counterparts. When Jane and Garrus had signed the Adoption papers, in the SA; they had made no assumptions regarding species.

But in the Hierarchy, they had assumed that Eve was Turian; and above all, the automated bureaucracy that ran the Adoption Ministry had registered _Jane_ as a Turian. So the Adoption Ministry had registered the new family as "Garrus, Jane, and Eve Vakarian. Father, Mother, and Daughter".

Sparatus had pointed out that little tidbit; and both Garrus and Eve felt a mixture of worry and amusement. Both trying to picture their Wife and Mother, respectively, as a Turian. The end result, which Eve had taken as her Turian form to replace the on the spot Solana copy, was a Turian with Pinkish-White Plates; and Maroon Red Underskin and Fringe, and Red Markings.

"Why in the hell is this stupid Adoption Ministry so badly run!?" Eve snapped, drawing Garrus out of his thoughts.

She looked at Garrus, her eyes having changed to Emerald Green to match her 'Turian Mothers'; and Garrus buzzed in thought for a moment, before he shrugged helplessly. He honestly didn't have an answer.

Sparatus sighed, "Because Turian adoptions are incredibly rare, Ms. Vakarian; unlike humans, all Turian family members are expected to and make sure to keep a close watch on their families. So if the Parents die, then the Child can still be raised by family; often going to the father's clan, yes, but these days we try to honor the parents request and let whomever they desire to handle raising their child in their stead." He explained.

Eve's mandibles clicked shut as she tried to process the information at what must have been an agonizingly long wait time for her. But by Organic standards, she was still incredibly fast on the uptake.

"What does this have to do with the Turian Adoption Ministry?" She finally asked.

Sparatus gave a long suffering and dramatic sigh, "And you're supposed to have a genius level intellect to the point that you flew through the Hierarchies standardized tests." He joked, before giving an apologetic and semi-submissive buzz upon seeing the furious glare she had given him. "The fact of the matter is that families are still culturally ingrained to pass off their children to the father's family upon death. Something like 99% of all families that do this; so when something different happens, the system doesn't really understand how to handle it."

The Councilor gestured to Garrus, who blinked as it finally dawned on him; "So as a result, it assumes that any discrepancies are errors; and automatically makes 'Corrections' to fix it. 'Jahenne is a human adoptive mother? That must be a mistake, change the species to Turian'," Garrus explained, using air quotes as he did so. Partially sarcastic, but mostly resigned he asked. "And I assume that even though Jane gave her Clan name, and registered Eve under her clan name; the system assumed that we were already 'Clan Mated', and changed her name to mine?"

Sparatus nodded, "Correct again Deputy Spectre."

Eve hissed as her fringe drooped; "Why has no one fixed this?" She demanded.

Sparatus simply cocked an eye plate while Garrus cringed; "I'll let it pass since we're alone, but don't forget that such open insubordination usually prompts punishment from the parents." He warned, and Eve shrank in on herself as Sparatus continued; "As I said, 99% of cases are just rubber stamped approval; and the errors that do happen are oftentimes manually fixed in relatively short order. So no one bothers to change what works in spite of its occasional failings."

Here, the Councilor's eyes seemed to twinkle; and his mandibles spread outward in a Turian grin, "And here is where things get interesting; and life saving for you Ms. Vakarian."

Garrus blinked, then gave a discordant Buzz and rubbed his eyes as he realized what the councilor's plan was; a habit he had picked up from Jane, "Sir… With all due respect, I haven't talked to even my sister in years; but even they would know if I had a daughter biologically. By the Spirits, what do I tell them? That I got together with a Turian Woman with a pre-started family?"

"Dad… It's not as bad an idea as you might think." Eve buzzed in thought, tilting her head; "San and I have been working on modifying one of the combat drones so that it emits the Eezo Infuzed Holographic Projection; and he thinks that we can modify another so that a regular person can use one to disguise themselves."

She seemed to get excited, and was practically bouncing up and down at this point; "Oh just Imagine it, we can make mom a Turian; or make Major Lee a Quarian, or San a human! The Possibilities are endless!" Eve exclaimed.

Garrus chuckled at her genuine antics, as well as the image of Wrex as one of those enormous 'Teddy-Bear' things he had seen in a novelty store on Arcturus station once. "You can play dress-up to your heart's content later," his smile faded slightly, "but first we need to make sure there are no legal loopholes that can be used against you or us."

Sparatus buzzed in mild irritation. "You already know what you need to do; you just need to work up the Frills to face your father, _Deputy Specter._ There was another matter I wanted to discuss though. I would like your honest assessment of the current operations to deal with this 'Triple Alliance'."

Garrus wasn't certain, but there was something in the Councilor's inflection that made him think Pressley's and his own misgivings were shared. Garrus didn't know for sure, but he had a hunch that there was much more going on at the moment than just some bad leadership.

Just a hunch.

* * *

As the Ghosts and Jane reached the wall of the compound, they froze as a small patrol of guards walked past.

At the moment, she was very much cursing at her insistence on tagging along with the Ghosts; but she wasn't going to turn down a chance to see how they operated up close and personal. One of the first things she had found out was that they moved _fast._

Which should not have surprised her, but it did.

They moved fast, they moved quietly, and they used their superior technology to map out the paths of least resistance and the best approaches to their objectives. They had given the 'Targeting Binoculars' to the Marines, and one of their precious 'Personal Stealth Drones' to continuously ping enemy patrols and keep the group updated on enemy movements.

"_Let 'em Pass…"_ One of the ghosts whispered.

Jane was just glad that she had her Stealth Cloak; as while she wasn't as concealed as the other Ghosts with their invisibility units, she was still much better concealed than if she were wearing standard N7 armor.

She took a breath and released it as the patrol walked past.

"_Ok… we're good." _Garth rasped, and almost as one the Ghosts started moving again.

The darkness was something that most humans would be severely handicapped by; but these people had long since adapted to the night, so they couldn't go sprinting around in the open all willy nilly. Still, the Night Vision Goggles were a tremendous help; and were far better than any natural night vision the natives had developed.

And that line of thinking was what caused Jane to nearly blow the whole operation when a Guard that hadn't been pinged rounded the corner as the group approached one of the many holes in the wall surrounding the complex.

As one, the group froze while Jane dropped to the ground to allow her Cloak to cover her fully.

Then man stopped and blinked in confusion; staring at what he thought had been a mass of heat shimmers. Then Jane's blood ran cold as the guards eye's zeroed in on her face.

_My Face!_ She realized in horror.

While her Cloak was exactly the same as the Ghosts, she didn't have the additional Invisibility Suite attached to her Armor; as they hadn't gotten the chance to get her and the rest of the 1-4-1 members one before being deployed.

The man's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to scream or bark out an alarm; but before he could do so, there was a shimmer behind him, and a knife blade exited out through the back of his neck. The man went limp, and was slowly lowered to the ground; before being hidden in a bush.

"_We got you Uber; just be more careful next time." _Nomad hissed.

Jane very much wanted to call him out on his very insubordinate sentence; but this was _his _op, not hers. He had made that clear on the mountain top, as a condition for her tagging along with them.

And she had nearly gotten them caught.

Still this was no time to be crying over spilled milk; so she just nodded, and the group moved on. As they reached the inside of the compound, Jane was moving her head every which way to try and get as much footage as possible; as it would allow them to break down the similarities and differences between other Triple Alliance Factory complexes, and see what kind of methods they used and how best to destroy them.

"_Drop!"_ a Ghost hissed, and Jane did so; making sure she pressed her face into the dirt so she didn't repeat her previous mistake.

Her diligence was rewarded, as the sound of boots crunching on gravel reached her ear for a brief moment; before fading away. _Glad I wasn't on the road when they made the call._ Jane grumbled, wincing as she thought about the rocks being pressed into her face. She had endured far worse in N7 training; but that didn't mean she liked doing painful things.

After a few more minutes, Garth's voice hissed; _"We're good, get going to the rally point." _

Jane hopped to her feet, pulling some particularly sharp rocks out of her face as she half jogged-half walked to the side entrance to the facility. There was a guard standing there, absently sweeping his gaze around the compound; when Garth's outline, which marked him as friendly to Jane, walked up and quickly snapped the man's neck.

The Ghost lowered the terrorist to the ground, before dragging him behind a set of barrels.

"_Alright…"_ Nomad growled into her ear; _"We split up here and rendezvous in the center of the facility. The General will be starting his attack in…" _He paused as he presumably checked the mission time. _"Hopefully ten minutes, assuming he can read a watch right. We need to be out of the facility right as the attack starts; because the General has made it known that he wants this facility."_

Jane and the others nodded, when Brooks asked; _"So what is the purpose of us being here? Beyond making it easier for the General to take the place of course."_

"_To get eyes on whatever the hell they were doing here; but if we're honest with ourselves, it's likely weapons research. Still, It'll be useful to the General to have an Arms factory; and for us to know what to expect next time we run into the Wolves."_ Garth replied.

Nomads outline nodded, _"Exactly; Garth, Brooks you two will take the upper administrative levels." _He started, pairing up each of the nine Ghosts with each other; until he reached himself and Jane. _"Uber, you're with me; we'll be checking out the basement levels. They're sealed off to the outside, which makes me suspicious." _

She nodded, "Understood Nomad; let's get this done and go home."

* * *

Something was off, but Jane wasn't sure what.

But there was an almost palpable sense of foreboding in the air; and everyone could feel it. From the Ghosts to the Guards, to Jane's surprise; as even the EA troopers seemed to be very uneasy, talking in hushed tones, and were incredibly jumpy. The slightest noises seemed to startle them into action; immediately starting a sweep of the surrounding area.

This normally wouldn't be a problem, but Nomad didn't want to kill them unless absolutely necessary; as he noted that a missing guard would likely draw attention when the shift change happened. And since they didn't know _when_ said shift change was supposed to happen, they couldn't take the chance.

Nomad held up a fist, and Jane dropped to the ground.

Another set of footsteps walked past, and these two guards were apparently a bit more chatty than the others the Ghost and the Spectre had encountered previously.

"_What kind of demons is that damned foreigner summoning down there? By Allah, I never would have agreed to work here if I had known _that_ is what is being done here." _One was saying.

The other snorted, but Jane could tell that the other man was nervous; and just trying to hide it by acting brave, _"Please, you make more in one week that you would in an entire year as a farmer; not considering the fact that they shoot anyone who tries to leave."_

The footsteps were already fading away, but Jane did manage to catch the tail end of the rest of the conversation; _"I'd rather be shot than be those people down there…"_

Jane lay there for several more minutes, when Lee hissed; _"We're clear… what the fuck are they doing down here that has those guards so spooked?" _If Jane didn't know any better, she would have assumed the Ghost sounded… Scared.

Jane quickly hopped up, and swept the area with her borrowed Hi-Standard; "I don't know… but something feels off about this whole thing." She replied.

"_Wait… do you hear that?"_ Nomad suddenly asked.

Jane blinked and tilted her head, straining to hear in the almost deafening silence that seemed to press downward on the entire factory-like facility. Then she heard it, it was almost… like a thousand rats scratching the walls mixed with dogs growling in an echochamber.

"What is that?" She wondered.

Nomad was frozen, and she looked over and saw him tensed up and ready to bolt; _"No…"_

He stood up and sprinted towards what looked to be a hatchway. "Nomad wait!" Jane hissed, but the Ghost either didn't hear her; or was so focused on the mystery noises that he didn't care about how much noise he was making.

Cursing, she scrambled after him; and realized that he was heading towards what looked like an open set of hatch doors. There were no guards, and there didn't seem to be any security checks or sensors in place; but Jane still felt her heart clench in fear as the Ghost practically barreled through the open hatchway and down the stairs, even as the sounds got louder and louder the closer she got.

At this point, she could hear moaning and groaning; and some people sobbing and crying. She skidded to a stop, and stared wide eyed at what she saw.

Rows and rows of transparent plexi-glass boxes; utterly filthy and filled with waste and garbage, but that was not what was horrifying. No, what really drew her gaze was the people inside the boxes. Most of them were drooling and foaming at the mouth; their movements jerky and uncertain, almost like they were drunk.

Some were snarling like animals, others were cowering away from the small puddles of what was almost certainly urine in the centers of their boxes.

"What…" She started, then she looked at Nomad; who seemed to be in shock. "August… what is this? I know you recognize it." She asked, recalling that Ziva was a doctor; and would likely have told August about this.

The Ghost didn't say a word; he just pointed at one of the labels on the Boxes.

Jane squinted, then felt all the blood drain from her face as she read what it said; and knew right then and there, the _real _reason as to why they had been sent out here. The real reason why the two Generals wanted this facility; and why Eayan Allah was so determined to protect it, and preserve its secrets.

"_Rabies. Airborne Variant. Results: Total Success. Time: 48 Hours Before Onset of Symptoms."_

* * *

Neither said anything for a long time; What was there to say? The most deadly Virus in human history; a Virus contained in saliva, that which was all that allowed humanity to survive as long as the Virus had existed, was now transmissible through Aerosol.

"Nomad…" Jane finally managed to say, as the two officers stared at the snarling people; their minds long since destroyed by the airborne rabies virus that was killing them. "We need to destroy this place. We can't let this fall into _anyones_ hands; much less risk it staying in EA's hands."

"Agreed Uber; All teams this is Nomad. You guys know those blocks of C4 each of us took with us? Yeah, we're destroying this fucking place. I'll explain once we get out of here." He said, looking at the 'patients' with a white face.

"_Who's there?!" _A voice shouted.

Jane and August cursed and immediately reactivated their cloaks, slipping into the shadows. It was to their shock and amazement as a brown skinned and withered looking Salarian walked into the room. Jane immediately felt her blood boil as she recognized who it was; Dr. Saleon, the Salarian responsible for the black market sale of illegally harvested organs.

She remembered when Garrus had told her about him; and had to bite down on her tongue to stop herself from railing against the evil Salarian.

He was the one that had resulted in Garrus's semi-disgrace in C-SEC; and he would pay for it.

_Click-Clack_.

The warning signal in her ear jarred Jane out of her thoughts; and she took a breath and calmed herself as Saleon walked down the corridor, absently recording the effects of the Virus on the 'patients' inside the sealed plexi-glass boxes.

He stopped in front of the one on the end, and peered inside; and Jane watched as a shimmer walked out of the shadows, and the Salarian doctor choked and flailed as Nomad yanked him backwards, and smashed the man into the ground. The mad doctor squirmed for a moment, until Nomad whipped out his Revolver and pointed it right between the Salarians beady eyes.

"Unless you want a bullet in your sick little brain, I'd suggest you stay where you are and stay quiet." The Ghost hissed, even as Jane emerged from the shadows to check the hatchway the Salarian had come from.

"Who are you?!" Saleon hissed furiously; his eyes looking every which way.

Jane growled, remembering how upset Garrus had been when the slimy little bastard had gotten away. And as she looked around at the various rabies infected humans; she knew that there was no way that she could let this little frog live. She decloaked and walked up to him, and pulled down her _Shemagh_; knowing that the Salarian would instantly recognize her.

He had threatened Garrus by promising to harvest her organs after all. "Your past come back to haunt you." She growled, pointing her own Pistol at his head.

Dr. Saleon's eyes were practically bulging out of his head now; as August knelt down in front of him, drawing his K-Bar. "Now then… 'Doctor Heart', tell me; how did you develop this airborne Rabies Virus, and where do you have the data for it? I don't think I need to tell you what happens if you don't give me an answer."

The Salarian trembled, and apparently believed the Ghost; because he immediately cracked and said, "On my computer! Making the Virus Airborne was easy, just made it more resistant to the air and sun." He explained frantically, looking back and forth between Jane and August.

Too bad that Jane had no intention of playing 'Good Cop' to Augusts 'Bad Cop'; even professionals like her had their own personal vendetta's. While she held no ill will towards individual Batarians, she viewed the species as a whole with suspicion; and always had a hand on her gun when in their presence.

But in this case, she was not so restrained.

"Nomad… if you would be so kind as to get the data off his computer? I'll continue the interrogation." She stated simply.

The Ghost flinched and looked at her, and Jane knew that he had an expression of surprise behind his skull face balaclava; but he must have seen the look in her eye, and gave a reluctant nod. He walked towards a nearby work desk, but put a hand on her shoulder; "We have a line in the Ghosts Ell Cee, don't cross it." He whispered, before carrying on.

His words brought her back to the shooting range back at Zekiah Mansion; how the Ghosts would police each other to make sure no one crossed the line. "W-w-wait… you're a Spectre! You can't do anything to me, I gave you what you wanted!" Saleon exclaimed frantically.

"Actually… I can." Jane replied.

_BOOM!_

Jane stumbled as the entire building shook; cracks forming in the concrete walls of the basement, while dust rained down from above. A loud siren began wailing, and Jane grunted as the Salarian kicked her in the chest; while simultaneously yanking her Hi-Standard out of her hand. Undeterred, Jane stomped onto the Salarians forearm, breaking it with a loud _crack!_

Saleon screamed in pain; and quickly retaliated with a punch to the mouth with his good hand.

Jane staggered and held her jaw as the Salarian capitalized on his blow by kicking her in the chest again; before taking off at a full tilt sprint towards the stairs. "They're Here! They're Here! Guards to the holding cells!" He started screaming.

_CRACK!_

The mad doctor fell to the floor, clutching the back of his left shoulder; howling in pain. Jane whipped her head around to see that August had already finished up with the hack and downloaded the data; and was currently pointing the now smoking barrel of his infamous revolver at the Salarian.

"You good Uber?" He asked, even as gunshots and screaming began to get closer and closer.

"I'm good, sounds like the general is really blitzing through the enemies defenses." She noted, picking up her Hi-Standard.

The Ghost shook his head, as Garth's voice filled their ears; _"Nomad! Uber! The General's breaking from the plan! He snuck his forces so that they were right next to the walls. He and his personal guard are already reaching the main building!" _

"Shit! We need to get out of here and blow this building!" August exclaimed.

"We can wait, at the very least try to convince him that it is better this place be destroyed. He has to know that if he lets this Virus out of this facility, then the planet will almost assuredly die." Jane protested, even as she marched up to Dr. Saleon; stopping the Salarians pitiful attempts at crawling away cold. "Isn't that right? Unless you're given the vaccine, you die."

The Salarian hissed as she stepped on his bad shoulder; "Yes… unless given the Vaccine ahead of time, you will die."

"_...I don't know Uber; but you'd best make your choice, because he's already reached the main entrance to the building."_ Garth warned.

"Form a perimeter in case things go bad; the two of us will deal with the General." Nomad barked, before pulling out one of his few remaining EMP Grenades; and tossing it at the pile of computers. "Now then…"

"NO!" Saleon cried, as all the computers and monitors winked out.

The Ghost ignored him, and turned to look at Jane. "Now the only two things left with the knowledge of how to develop the virus is here." He held up a little stick of some kind, likely where he had stored the data; before turning to look at Saleon.

Jane understood his meaning, "And in there…" She finished; glaring angrily at the mad Scientist. "I think, Nomad, that you would agree that it is too dangerous for knowledge of how to make this Virus to be allowed to roam free don't you?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am… It is." He replied, spinning his Revolver and holding it out handle first for her to take. "I know about your history, and Garrus's, with this little shit; I'll meet you upstairs." Was all he said as Jane took the revolver; grunting in surprise at its weight.

As the Ghost walked away, she turned her gaze down at the slimy little Salarian; even as the scientist began to weep and beg. Doing that which he had listened to others do, without pity or remorse, hundreds of times; even as he made this virus for nothing more than a quick credit, even as he had _grown organs_ in his own staff to sell on the Black Market.

"PLEASE! PLEASE MERCY! PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME-E-E-E!" He screamed.

Jane sneered as his cries for mercy became so intolerable; she promptly took off her _Shemagh_, and stuffed it into the Salarian's mouth. She wouldn't be needing the thing after today, and she would prefer to forget this campaign sooner as opposed to later.

Wounded, bleeding, broken, and his eyes bulging with terror; Dr. Saleon watched as Spectre Jahenne Haniel Shepard-Vakarian put her foot on his chest, then raised the .50 Calibre Action Express Custom Revolver.

And then, without another word; she shot Dr. Saleon through the forehead.

* * *

Jane walked up the steps, feeling both fulfilled and drained at the same time, as she looked up towards the approaching General and his personal guards. August stared them down, not even looking away as she walked up next to him.

"So this is how it ends then…" The General said softly, walking forward with not a care in the world. Jane's arm was still stinging from shooting August's damned revolver; but she was ready for a fight if the need arose. "This is how you become enemies of our Revolution, to the establishment of our Agrarian Proletariat." He continued, his voice was sad; but determined nonetheless.

"If by 'enemy' you mean our destroying a bio-weapons factory that violates _every_ law of armed conflict for _every_ civilized race in the Galaxy," Jane's eyes speared the General, "then yes, I suppose we are enemies now."

"The contents of this factory is not what I care for; the ability to produce weapons means little to me. No… My quarrel with you is the violation of our deal. A violation your General promised me would not happen." The General replied, making no moves towards his Makarov; the weapon having been attached to his hip ever since it had been given to him. "I did not make this deal with your Genera for nothing; it was a deal I took to ensure that I got here before the Imam destroyed this factory for the crimes you now try to banish away."

Jane adjusted her grip on August's revolver, while August himself shifted his stance in preparation to either fight or run; adjusting his MP5SD into a more readily available position, but made no move to draw it and start shooting.

"You speak as if we hadn't just eliminated one of the greatest threats to life across the galaxy." Jane's eyes hardened along with her grip. "You also speak as if you _knew_ what was being made here."

"But of course." The General blinked and tilted his head in confusion, "I was under the assumption that you knew as well. Your General Grant was the one that told me about it of course. This would have been the perfect propaganda tool to expose the hypocrisy of these savages." The General replied, looking genuinely shocked that they had not known. "The Imam does not understand the need for propaganda; which is why he simply would have destroyed it."

Jane kept her tense poise, but glanced uncertainly at Lee. The Ghost had actually taken a step back, and his MP5 hung loose for a moment. He quickly rallied, and fixed his stance and his grip on his weapon. He glanced at Jane, even as the hand carrying the revolver shook. Jane saw that he also desperately wanted information about what the General had just said, but at that moment they were balanced on a knife edge; she dared not show any more ignorance or weakness in her position.

"General…" She started, trying a new tack; "do you truly desire to keep the samples of this Virus alive and suffering down there? Prolong the suffering of poor people who were scooped off the street and experimented on to create a disease that could easily kill the entire planet if we were to allow it to break free?" She asked.

The General looked down for a moment, clearly contemplating her words; and August took a breath and stepped forward, "Sir… you fight this war to offer a better future for these people; to give them an offer for a better alternative to EA. _Do you want to sink to their level, and become that which you are fighting?_" He had switched to Uzbek midway through to reinforce to the General that they were on his side.

The man closed his eyes, and nodded; "You have twenty four hours to leave this planet and never come back. Should we meet again on the battlefield, we shall meet as enemies."

And with those words, he walked back to his Horse and pulled himself up; he pulled on the reigns, but paused as he did so. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his Buzkashi riding whip; the black Ebony wood handle, the silver engravings, and brown leather whip portion was marred by years of use and harsh campaigning.

"Here… I never did repay you for your gifts to me." He said, putting a hand on his Makarov Pistol. "It has served me well over many decades; I want you to have it as a token of our friendship over these past few months. To serve as a reminder that we need not be enemies forever."

Jane slowly took the Riding Whip with an almost reverent air; before looking back up at the General, who gave her a soft smile. "Thank you sir…" She couldn't bring herself to say anything else.

August just nodded, and said; "Goodbye, sir…" Before snapping off a quick salute.

The General smiled at their words and August's salute; and he nodded before shouting _"HAH!"_

His horse whinnied and kicked up onto its hind legs for a moment, before wheeling around and sprinting away; the General leading his men out of the now doomed compound, and back to the fields of New Kurdistan.

It was a sight to behold, and as Jane watched him go; she swore she would cherish his gift for the rest of her life.

* * *

As the Warchief slowly touched down on the mountain top; Jane gave a sad smile and shook her 'Guards' hand, the old man giving her a sad look. Jane bowed and said in Dari, _"I am sorry, brother… that we must part as enemies."_

The old man smiled as he returned the handshake, _"Your Dari could still use some work, but I thank you nonetheless. You have given this old man an adventure of a lifetime. Yesterday we were allies, and tomorrow we will be enemies; but so it is the way the world works. The lands of the peoples of Islam have been called 'The Graveyard of Empires'; and who knows… either it will be the Imam's Empire that is added to the graves, or it will be your Alliance." _He said, a nostalgic look on his face.

Jane nodded, "Perhaps so, perhaps not; we shall see." She replied, before turning away from the man and walked back to the bundles of gear being loaded into the VTOL Transport Jet. As she walked up, she could hear Bowman grumbling to August; "Three fuckin' years building up all this trust, and Grant pisses it all away; That's the way things work I guess."

"If it weren't for those fucking two stars on his shoulders; I'd punch him in the mouth for nearly fucking us over like this." Lee replied, carrying another crate with Colt as they loaded it onto the transport.

Archer followed with Phil close behind. "He's Schultz's boy; maybe we should take a short trip home to the Spirit and ask some pointed questions about what the _fuck_ is going on!" She all but slammed her duffle into the transport bed.

Jane ignored them, and just watched as their 'Guards' mounted up onto their horses for one final time; and noted with a smile that Ara and Nek were not among them. She turned to see the twins sitting between Kal and Ash, looking up at the two adults in wonder as the two doubtlessly told them about what they could expect.

How long she stood there, she would never know; and was only jostled out of her thoughts when Lee shouted, "Hey Ell Cee, it's time to go!"

Jane looked over and gave a wave of acknowledgment; before taking on final look around the mountain range and the valleys as the rest of the militia began trotting away on their horses. As she did so, she suddenly remembered something; reaching into her Plate Carrier, she pulled out a melted chunk of gold.

She had taken it from the destroyed statue of the Krogan on the presidium; having made a vow to bury it on the world of those who were responsible for its destruction. While she had yet to find those who were truly responsible, this was good enough for her. Kneeling down, she dug a small hole in the ground; and dropped the small nugget of melted and charred gold in the ground, before burying it again.

With that done, she stood up and walked to the Warchief; ready to go home.

Jane, Bowman, and August were the last three to board the Warchief; the hatch slowly closing as the engines began to rev up, slowly lifting off the ground and climbing into the sky. After a moment, Jane said; "Pilot! Hold for a moment."

"_Copy that ma'am."_ The Pilot replied.

Jane stared down into the valley, at that damned factory for a moment; before she sighed, and nodded to Lee. He nodded in kind, he pulled out the Clacker from his armor vest; and pressed the lever.

The flashes and explosions began to light up the morning sky; and Jane watched as the factory of death began to crumble. But even as it fell in on itself, the mysterious it had produced were alive and well. And Jane was determined to solve them, by any means necessary.

"Alright Pilot… Take us home."

* * *

**Pilot A/N: More and more cracks in the narrative the Ghosts have followed.**

**Beyond being pleased at the opportunity for writing another 'Ghost Recon' Level, and showcasing the Ghosts abilities as infiltrators; I don't have much else to say beyond giving a… goodbye to New Kurdistan, though I know you all have figured this won't be a permanent goodbye.**

**Dr. Saleon finally makes his appearance from all the way back when; and now we get to see what he's been up to working with EA. ****And of course, Grant fucked 1-4-1 and the IAA over; he essentially spoiled the Alliance they had worked so hard to create and maintain.**

**Alright, that's all I have to say; how 'bout you Ian, you got anything?**

**Ian A/N: On a less distressing note, The advancements in Eve's holographics are going to lead to interesting things in the future. Her peculiar status with the Turian government will have some ramifications for our burgeoning family. Remember that nothing is without purpose or intent, Stay tuned to find out.**

**Pilot: Right then, check my profile for the link to the discord and the Writing challenge I have posted.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**Leave a review and tell us what y'all think; the feedback helps us out greatly.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	28. Reunion

"Eve… Please stop switching between your Turian Form and your Human Form… it's really freaking me out." San said, not even looking over his shoulder as he continued his work. He didn't have to look, he could tell from the shadow being cast.

"What? You don't find me pretty like this?" She asked in mock hurt, her voice buzzing like a regular Turians; telling him that she was currently in her Turian form, as he'd suspected.

"I find you pretty regardless, and I like you more for your personality; but-" He started, then cut himself off as she drew him into a hug.

"Awww… that's so sweet; how about this?" She asked cheekily, as she suddenly shifted from her Turian Form into a Quarian teenager, that pretty much looked like a Quarian version of Shepard; Violet hair, lavender skin, glowing silver eyes, and very beautiful.

San felt his jaw drop, and suddenly found it very difficult to form words; "Ah… b-b-b-bahhh…"

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek; and then shifted into her Turian form as she did so. Scratch that, he was finding that it was _impossible_ for him to form words at the moment. Eve gave a quick mandible chatter she'd heard her dad make from time to time when amused, then flickered back to her human form.

San suddenly felt a little nervous at the look she was giving him "What?"

She gave him a playful grin while tiny horns formed on her head. "Wanna have some fun?"

* * *

San knelt outside the cockpit. "_I can't believe that worked!" _

Pressley looked around at San's whisper, but the mobile emitter's impromptu _cloak_ kept San shrouded.

"_Just subvocalize from now on," _Eve's voice faintly whispered in San's ear.

"_Okay. So, now?"_

"_No! You gotta wait until I open the cockpit hatch, then just stand up and run for the access corridor; I'll do the rest." _Her voice had a very playful lilt.

"_Alright; I trust you."_

He tensed for the hatch to open. As it did, his mobile emitter shifted as he stood and bolted for the corridor. Pressley looked back to the cockpit as the hatch opened and a _stark nude _Joker bolted for the exit.

"FREEEDOOOOM!"

Everyone looked in shock as their pilot streaked across the CIC. "Flight Lieutenant Moreau! What the hell are you-"

"Ell Tee, what are you guys doing back there?" Pressley jerked his head around to see Jeff Moreau peering at him from the pilot's station. He whipped his head back around just in time to see the CIC access hatch cycle shut.

Pressley absently keyed the ship comm. "This is the XO. Will the relief watch report to the CIC? I think everyone needs a break."

* * *

Jane kept her eyes closed as she leaned against the bulkhead of the stealth transport.

She hurt all over, the sting of the betrayal from the General was still fresh, she desperately wanted a nap and a change of clothes; and above all she _really _wanted a shower. But as if New Kurdistan was giving her one last middle finger, the Showers at Fort Ulysses had been hit by a random mortar shell.

No one had been hurt, but It meant that she would have to wait until she got to the Normandy to get a shower.

She hadn't opened her eyes since boarding, because she wanted the first thing she saw to be Eve and Garrus. She had even told August as much, and to her surprise; he hadn't laughed or scoffed. Instead, he had just nodded and asked, "Do you delegate your authority to me until then?"

What else was she going to say to an excuse to slack off and nap until she got her command back? No?

"So how many nights were we out there? Cause I've lost track of my underwear." She heard Phil ask.

_Several months at least, I lost track thanks to that stupid day night cycle._ She thought bitterly.

Garth's team had left aboard a GST Prowler, and Bowman had stayed at Fort Ulysses for an Official debrief; so it was just the 1-4-1 members left onboard, meaning that everyone was slowly slipping back to their normal selves. She could hear Ara and Nek snuggle closer to Kal and Ash, the two of them were almost certainly asleep by this point.

Colt's voice drew Jane from her inner rambling, and she couldn't help but smile; as annoying as his joking demeanor was at times, it did help pick up people's spirits. "You got right side out, frontways and backwards; then _insideout _front and back. I'm currently on pair eight; but inside-out front, I… haven't been changing them."

Nomad gave a loud snort, while Alenko huffed; "Yeah… I'm thinking the ship can _smell_ us from five klicks out by now."

"How far out are we?" Jane asked, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"Just a few minutes skipper; then we're home." Ashley replied.

"Home… A new home for us…" Jane heard Nek say, and she heard Ara mumble something in agreement. She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face; they would sure be in for a shock when they saw Garrus, Liara, Wrex, Kirrahe, and the rest of the ship. And they would almost certainly find new friends in Fyodor, and Eve, and San, and all the rest of the Quarian Pilgrims on the ship.

As the seconds counted down, Jane was practically buzzing with excitement as she thought about reuniting with Garrus and Eve; every second felt like an hour. Her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest as she heard the shuttle go through the docking procedures; and she jokingly wondered if she was going to have an aneurysm as she felt the gravity shift as the Shuttle docked onto the ship.

She heard the hatch door open, and everyone stood and began to file out; but then they stopped dead in their tracks.

She frowned, and almost opened her eyes when she heard August say; "Huh… so _that's_ what you would look like… uh… don't open your eyes yet Ell Cee, cause Garrus and Eve have got a surprise for you it seems."

_What?_ She wondered, even as she obeyed his instructions; presumably given to him by Eve and Garrus. She heard the team file out; the shuffling footsteps eventually being replaced by just two sets.

"Major, if you would please?" She heard the squeak of Lee's boot soles on the grating of the shuttle hangar as he left her alone.

"Hey mom…" Jane's frown deepened, it sounded like Eve was right in front of her; but that was impossible, there were no Emitters on this shuttle. Plus, it sounded like she had a flange to her voice; like Garrus almost.

She opened her eyes and came face to face with a young turian girl with white face markings and red highlights. However unusual and seemingly unfamiliar the physical features seemed, the eyes of the individual in front of her could only belong to one person.

"Eve!" Jane surged to her feet and instinctively wrapped her daughter in a hug. The fact that she could do that in an area that she _knew_ lacked holo-projectors only caused her to squeal and spin Eve around.

She laughed as she set her daughter down and stepped back. "You've been busy while I was away. The Haptics work fine, but the simulated mass seems a _little_ off."

Garrus gave a mock long-suffering buzz. "Here we are, working miracles to surprise you with upon your return; and you complain about our daughter's weight."

Jane planted a fist on her hip. "Well what do you expect? When I left, she weighed 153,000 tonnes, but now she feels like she's less than ten kilos. A mother has a right to worry."

Garrus theatrically threw his talons up in defeat. "Fine, the next time you deploy I'll feed her nothing but Yellow Cake. She'll be the size of a Dreadnaught by the time you get back. Are you happy?"

"Almost." She reached out her hands to both Eve and Garrus. They both stepped towards her and she wrapped them in a bone creaking hug. "Now, I'm happy."

None of them moved from the spot for ten minutes.

* * *

"So…" Jane started slowly, easing onto her couch; trying not to get the filth on her pants onto the cushions and pillows. "To reiterate; according to the Turian Hierarchy, _I_ am a Turian and so is Eve. And Councilor Sparatus wants us to meet with your family in order to further sell the deception of Eve and I being Colonists you've taken in until his legal team can build a case for Eve."

Garrus buzzed uneasily, while Eve bobbed her head; her frills perking upward, "Yeah."

Jane just rubbed her eyes, "And none of you saw the problem with the fact that I'm very distinctly _not_ a Turian?" She asked sarcastically.

Eve shifted uneasily, and gave an uncertain buzz as she looked at Garrus. He just buzzed in kind and nodded; so Eve walked over to Janes desk and pulled something out of it, and turned toward her. It looked like one of the Ghosts Armor Plate carriers, but having been gutted and had all the fancy things removed from it.

"Well… we were hoping to surprise _all _of you with this when we got back; since it would help us… _you_, enormously with infiltration missions." Eve started, before handing the vest to Jane. "Just… put it on and stand up; then hit the button on the chest, but not before." She instructed uneasily, wringing her hands together and taking a step back. "And uh… Please close your eyes when you do it."

Jane did as asked. She felt something detach from the suit followed by a faint whirring sound.

Garrus and Eve watched as a small drone flew around Jane taking several laser tomography readings before reconnecting to the chest piece. That was when the suit went to work. The suit, which was one part holographic projector, one part tech armor and one part omnitool, began building the lattice that would support the illusion, including a complex ankle brace and foot extension rig to simulate a Turian's leg structure and a pair of digital gloves that encased her fingers into a Turia's three digit grip.

Once the powered appliance was finished and framed out, an orange honeycomb wrapped around and mimicked her features. As soon as the last hexagon appeared, a ripple passed over the entire structure, leaving a fully Turian Jane.

"Okay mom, you can look now."

As Jane teetered unsteadily while she tried to walk; she looked down and realised that her new 'body' was more like a second skin and a shell merged into one. She was now as tall as a regular Turian, but her legs were cloaked completely since human legs bent differently compared to Turians.

It was like she was walking on stilts, but the stilts necessitated her to walk backwards as opposed to forwards.

"Wow… August wasn't wrong when he said that this is what you would look like as a Turian. I must say, you're beautiful as a human; but you're truly the epitome of that phrase 'knock-out gorgeous' as a Turian." Garrus rasped.

"Ew dad!" Eve exclaimed, quickly hitting Garrus on the arm.

Jane laughed and spun around to face them, "I'm actually a Turian… a Turian! HA!" She laughed, wobbling over to her husband and daughter; hugging them again. It was weird being _nearly _eye level with Garrus; but she didn't care. Her arms were slightly longer, and she now had three fingers instead of five on her second skin; but it was manageable.

Then she realized something; and brought a hand up to her throat, "Eve… was that thing you attached to my throat meant to give me sub-vocals?" She asked.

Garrus grinned cheekily at Jane. "Well you're not going to fool anyone with your disguise if you don't sound the part." He touched a talon to her cheek and his grin faded slightly. "It just doesn't feel the same." He instinctively took Eve's talons in his own before she could get upset. "It's not you, honey. I know my mate; and as much as I appreciate the view, the Jane I know is the Jane I fell in love with."

Jane gave a warm smile. "Good, because however good the fidelity is on the projectors, there isn't much feedback from touch." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Or is that because I have 'scales, and there isn't as much tactile sensation?"

She shook her head and stepped back, then went through a short set of Turian martial flourishes. "Huh, so _that's_ how that move is supposed to work; I could never get it right."

Garrus chuckled, happy to be back on familiar ground. "I _told _you that you needed to be Turian to use _Certamine Valerium_ techniques."

Jane nodded with a thoughtful look. "Has anyone looked into getting a suit like this rigged up for Joker? It would be worlds better than the exoskeleton he uses now."

* * *

I Walked into the Operations Officers Quarters, my Quarters, and flopped down onto the bed.

I was dead on my feet, smelled like shit, felt like shit, and I just wanted to sleep; as having the Mass Effect Equivalent to Jet Lag was not fun in the least. Normally, I would just sleep in the hanger bay with the rest of my team; as I disliked having my own quarters when they couldn't have one. But just this once, I was going to use my officers privileges.

There wasn't much, a bed that was more of a cot; a small desk, dresser, and a small attached bathroom that had a toilet, sink, and shower.

I grumbled as I thought of that damned desk, but I didn't really have a choice; both for my health and sanity. I pushed myself up and rolled off the bed, walking over to my desk and easing myself into the chair with a loud groan. After a few seconds of staring at the screen of the monitor attached to it, I dialed the number and sat there blank faced as the call connected.

There was a long pause, and then the words _"Audio Only" _flashed across the screen.

I blinked in confusion, until I heard a splash of water and Ziva shout; _"Just a minute!"_

I couldn't stop the smile working its way across my face; the thought of a bath, some time with my girlfriend breaking through the haze of exhaustion clouding my mind. The thought of proposing to her flashed across my mind as well. _Maybe Eve would be able to find a nice jewelry store on the Citadel; _I mused. I had certainly held out long enough; and the thought of giving June a new Brother or Sister was certainly enough for me.

I just laughed, as the screen flashed for a moment; and then Ziva's face was staring back at me.

She was as beautiful as always, though at the moment she looked more like a drowned rat. This wasn't the movies where she was still smoking hot despite being in a frenzied rush; her hair was all wet and still had suds in it, she was still hastily wrapping her bathrobe around her, and she was still dripping water everywhere.

After a minute of laughing for no real reason, I said; "Hey honey… did I call at a bad time?"

She laughed in kind, but it sounded more like a choked sob, _"August… are you finally done? Is your mission over?"_

My heart clenched, "No… but I'm off of New Kurdistan, so I can finally call you all every night now." I replied, and I could feel myself getting a little misty eyed. "I just… I just wanted to hear you guys."

She smiled lightly, _"Well… Junes asleep, and as you can tell I was getting ready for bed. But I can take the day off tomorrow."_

I shook my head, "Honey, we're going to the Citadel; besides, I can't ask-"

Ziva's smile grew wider, _"Then I can take a Vacation, the treaty finally went through, they intend to announce it at the start of Armistice Week; and then formalize it on the Citadel after the Parade of the Armies. They intend to announce the cure and begin distributing it at the same time." _She said simply.

I blinked, my sleep deprived mind struggling to catch up; "Then you won't be on the Citadel on Armistice day… will you?" I asked, already figuring the answer.

Her smile dropped and she looked down, _"No… I'll be on the Spirit of Fire with June, showing a delegation of Migrant Fleet Officers and their escorts that the cure really works."_ She snorted, _"Admiral 'Xen is supposedly going to be there."_ She added.

I tensed at the thought of that bitch, and Ziva held up a hand to placate me; _"Don't worry, I'm not letting that viper near _our _daughter. Hiram and Kala will be there as well; the first time I get to see the ship you know, same for her. We'll be fine, August."_

I just rubbed my eyes and yawned; "Alright… alright, I trust you honey. Just please be careful around her."

"_I will… Now get some sleep sweetheart, I love you." _She said.

I smiled, "I love you too, I'll talk with you in the morning; or on the Citadel, whichever comes first."

* * *

San flinched as the Commander walked into engineering.

He _still_ wasn't used to how seamless the 'Mobile Emitter' was; and how many kinks they still needed to work out in it. The biggest limitation of course, was that the disguise couldn't be smaller than you were; meaning that San couldn't disguise himself as little Fyodor.

The white plates, and crimson red underskin and facial markings were really unnerving to a Quarian like San; red had a stigma of being related to death in Quarian society.

"Wooow… all this technology! It's so cool!" A voice exclaimed from next to him, jarring San from his thoughts.

He chuckled and looked over to see Nek, Ara, and Fyodor clustered together.

The kid was showing them his self made toy drone; floating it around slowly, as it wobbled unsteadily in the air. "Hm… It looks like one of my stabilizers is mal-adjusted." Fyodor mused, quickly recalling it.

"A… Stabilizer?" Ara asked, staring in confusion.

San winced as he returned his attention to his work bench; puttering around with his equipment as he struggled to build _another_ Mobile Emitter. Major Lee had stated that if the Quarians wanted to go suitless on the Citadel, then they all needed to build their own Mobile Emitters so they could disguise themselves as humans. Until the humans Armistice week rolled up, the cure was to remain a secret to the general public.

He felt for the two children that had been all but adopted by the crew.

Their education in comparison to a Quarians was so… limited; he had overheard the Major telling Gunny Williams that the particular branch of Islam that EA practiced forbade females from being educated after the age of ten.

He sighed again, even as he absently soldered some wires together; noting out of the corner of his eye the Commander turning and leaving the room. It was unsettling how real the disguise looked, he honestly wondered how it felt to wear it; as he had tried out the human disguise, but it had glitched out before anything came of it.

He had yet to finish that "Cold War: What We Saw" Audio book, but he still wondered if he should finish it; he had finished the sixth episode, and wondered if it was at all possible for Humanity to accept the Quarian people.

The Migrant Fleet and its people were _Communists_; by the ancestors, the power struggle between Lavrentiy Beria and Nikita Khrushchev alone would be enough to make any race leery about the system.

"What's got you purple San?" He didn't even look up as the flanging voice of Eve in her Turian form spoke up next to him.

"Just thinking." _About how your mother's people will likely reject mine because we operate in a Socialist economic system only a few steps separated from pure communism._

Eve just buzzed happily, "Now don't be sad, we got so much to be happy about; besides, we got some more 'Fleet and Flotilla' Tonight!"

San just shook his head, and looked back down at his work, sighing again.

Eve buzzed again, this time sounding more uncertain; "Umm… we can try some more pranks with the Mobile Emitters?"

San gave a tight smile, "Maybe we shouldn't do that any more; the crew might get suspicious."

Eve shifted into her Quarian form, and gave a warning feline-like growl, and San froze; "Alright, enough of this; what's eating you San, and I'm not leaving until you tell me." She said angrily, while San tried to process the _very_ familiar sound that she had just made.

"Er…" He struggled for a moment with his thoughts, before saying; "I think your mother and her people won't like mine."

Eve blinked, even as she shifted into her human form; the expression on her face was one of utter bafflement. "What?" She asked, sounding _very _confused.

"It's," San sighed and opened the audio book file. "Humans don't like Communists. It's a part of their history; and my people have _had _to be communistic to survive." He slumped in the chair.

Eve's form flickered into her more original translucent mode; a sign San had learned meant she was devoting more processor power to a system other than her holographics. Just as suddenly as it began, she snapped back to her full form, taking on her Quarian persona.

"Alright San; I've listened to it." She gently grabbed his hands like her mother did when she wanted to explain something difficult or painful. "That book was written about _Soviet_ Communism. That system was imposed on the Russian people, and others as the Soviet's grew in power, because terrible people wanted to take that power. _Your _people had to adopt Communism to stay alive in a Galaxy that refused to help you." She smiled slightly, "I'm certain that once you're given the chance, your people can use other systems if it suits _you._ That is something to consider; is that if it's what your people want, and not something imposed upon them by force and terror, then no one will bother you over it."

She giggled slightly, "If I recall correctly, according to the history files; the Quarian Federation was something more akin to the United States of America, or the British Commonwealth in terms of culture, economy, and government." She swayed his hands back and forth, "I think that you'll be fine."

* * *

Garrus stared at Jane as she quickly pulled on the 'Personal Holographic Disguise'; as everyone had taken to calling it. All of 1-4-1 had gotten a turn with it, Ash and August disguising themselves as Quarians, Kal and Tali as humans; and Eve had decided to turn Wrex into a Giant 'Teddy Bear' at Garrus's suggestion.

But Jane had worn it all week to get used to acting like a Turian; and to make sure all the kinks for that specific setting was worked out. Among others was the Sub-Vocals, as Eve almost constantly had to rewrite the damned program; because once the disguise was off, the sub-vocals program seemed to crash the whole thing.

It was a cause for genuine concern, until Tali did some poking around and found the problem; and Garrus still had no clue what it was, because when the excited Quarian had explained it, it seemed like everyone's eyes just glazed over.

Except the other Quarians and Eve of course.

"Garrus…" He flinched, and looked over at Jane; to find the white face markings, and red undertones of her skin, and the unusual Emerald Green Eyes of her Turian disguise staring back at him. "It'll be fine." Her voice buzzed with Sub-vocals as it should with a Turian.

He took a breath, and sighed; "I know… My Mother and sister will love you and Eve; my father… well I don't honestly know _what _he would think."

Jane buzzed softly and took Garrus's hands; "I think he'll be more angry with you over your new position. 'Deputy Spectre Garrus Vakarian' certainly does have a nice ring to it. And plus, I have Dr. Lorah's cure regarding Dextro-Amino Acids; I can eat whatever you eat."

He couldn't help but laugh, "Planning on wooing my father through his stomach?" He asked jokingly, remembering her disastrous attempts at cooking when they had first started he had learned that Jane couldn't cook, Lee had tried teaching her how to make his 'Spaghetti and Meatballs' with his special 'Meat press'; whatever that meant.

It had gone just as poorly, if Lee's dumbfounded exclamations of "You _burned_ Spaghetti… how is that even possible?" was anything to go by.

"You know the old human saying, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." She replied in amusement.

Garrus snorted, "My father has a stomach of steel; I don't think that he would leave such a vulnerable flank unprotected." He replied sarcastically.

Jane just rolled her eyes; "Oh come on you, Eve's waiting for us."

* * *

Jane was uneasy as she walked off the ramp of the Normandy.

The past week being essentially Turian was something she was still getting used to; but now at least she could put up a convincing act. Eve was shifting back and forth on her feet, trailing slightly behind Jane and Garrus; until she caught sight of the massive arms of the Citadel.

Her mouth dropped open, and her mandibles went slack; as she stared at the endless skyscrapers dotting the "Horizon" of the Station.

"Oh… My… God…" Eve whispered.

Jane smiled, but nonetheless walked forward and flicked Eve's forehead with her finger. She flinched, even as Jane buzzed in slight warning and amusement; that action alone was still enough to make Jane want to look at her disguise in amazement, but she pushed it down as she said, "_Spirit's _Eve, we don't worship God as Turians. Well… maybe we could, but we're trying not to draw too much attention."

Garrus snorted, "If you're from the colonies perhaps; as the Church of Athame and your Christianity have made inroads there. Alright, brace yourselves; the security checkpoint is coming up." He warned.

Eve tensed, while Jane took a breath and sighed to calm herself; while they would detect the eezo in the Mobile Emitters, it wouldn't be anymore than what was standard for any person who had grown up around eezo.

Garrus grimaced, and Jane had to fight down her growing alarm; knowing that the Sub-Harmonic Enhancer would pick up on it. The Security Checkpoint was manned almost entirely by Turians.

Garrus looked at his family and gave their hands a squeeze. "Alright ladies; moment of truth!" With that, all three strode forward.

The security officer looked up from his terminal. He seemed to immediately puff up and sit with machine precision as he set eyes on Jane. "Identification please."

Over the years of her relationship with Garrus, she had come to recognize some Turian mannerisms. Turian society being driven by civic mindedness meant that if you wanted to impress someone, you showed how dutiful you were. This particular Turian was trying to show off for Jane, and she didn't know whether to laugh at the attempt, or indulge in a good old fashioned Krogan headbutt.

The decision was taken out of her ha… _talons_ when Garrus stiffly extended his omnitool for scanning. "Garrus Vakarian, Deputy Specter, traveling with Jane and Eve _Vakarian._ Bonded and Daughter, respectively."

The security officer wavered in his assessment for a moment, looking back and forth between Jane and Garrus until Jane gave a subconscious growl. The vocal modification and mobile emitter translated it into a buzz and the chattering of her mandibles, sending the clear message that the only 'reach-and-flexibility' they would engage in was seeing how far up his own ass she could stuff his head.

The guard very quickly focused on the documents to be scanned. This was actually the least concerning part of the process since her's and Eve's identification were, in fact, issued by the Hierarchy. "Purpose for your visit?" he refocused on Garrus, whom he apparently felt was the less threatening figure.

"Introducing my family," he nodded to Jane and Eve, "to my family."

"Very well, stand by for scanning."

Jane and Eve remained perfectly still as a drone lifted from a nearby cradle and swept a scanning beam around the two. Jane needed to resist the urge to hold her breath. It occurred to her that she had been less nervous in the lead up to the assault on the bio-weapons factory on New Kurdistan.

_I'm trained how to assault facilities. I spent 20 years dodging my family's attempts to 'marry me off well'._ She mused; remembering that the family in England had actually considered marrying her off to the Washingtons or the Jeffersons, but her joining the military had thrown a wrench in that.

She refocused when a chime sounded on the guards post. "Everything seems to be in order, Deputy Specter. Enjoy your stay on the Citadel." The three all headed through the checkpoint.

The easy part was over; now to meet Garrus' family.

* * *

Chellick wandered out of his officers booth, fighting down a yawn.

He had been working double shifts as of late, trying to earn some overtime pay; but it was absolutely murder on his sleeping scheadual. As he went down the line of checkpoints, he noted with some displeasure that Corporal Caltius seemed to be holding up a bunch of Quarians; and jamming up the rest of the line on _his_ checkpoint as a result.

Growling in annoyance, he walked up; and blinked as he noticed that they were Quarian Marines, mixed with a few pilgrims. His suspicions were confirmed when he caught the tail end of the conversation; "-have authorization to be on this station with permission from Spectre Jahenne Shepard, and Deputy Spectre Garrus Vakarian." The leader of the group was saying, a Violet suited Female Quarian.

"Bah! I just cleared Deputy Spectre Vakarian! You expect me to-"

"Corporal, is there a reason you're holding up the line?" Chellick interjected, glaring unimpressed at the younger officer; but also a little surprised. Caltius was a notable Femalizer, attempting to constantly get females to mate with him; and Quarians were no exception to this.

This female in particular was quite attractive by Quarian standards, so he must have been slammed with a pretty hard rejection if he was acting like this.

And Chellick hadn't missed the fact that the Corporal had cleared _Deputy Spectre_ Vakarian; _Seems like you got a promotion old friend_. He mused, before refocusing on the Turian in front of him.

The man seemed to deflate slightly, "These… Quarians were attempting to enter using a Spectres authorization! Clearly it's-"

"Have you actually run it yet?" Chellick asked, already figuring the answer. "No? Then you have no reason to be suspicious of them unless it turns out to be false. Run, the number; and then meet me in my office." He ordered.

It took a few minutes, even as Chellick began drinking some Dextro-Coffee; having become addicted to the human drink for quite awhile, before Corporal Caltius walked in, looking quite resigned.

"Alright… how bad was it?" He asked.

"Horrible! She was drop dead gorgeous, the perfect length of fringe; white markings, a pinkish-red undertone to her plates, crimson-red underskin, and bright green eyes! And you know what? She's bonded already. She's from the colonies for sure, no way someone that exotic is from Palavan!" He ranted.

Chellick absently nodded, "mmhmm, and what is her name?" He asked, taking another sip of coffee.

"Jane Vakarian, and she's got a kid too; almost old enough for mandatory service. Just as pretty as her mother, I swear the Spectres get all the good females." Caltius ranted, not noticing his superior freeze in place; nearly spitting out his coffee in surprise.

Chellick quickly swallowed his coffee and said, "Enough! As it turns out, I know the female you speak off; and quite frankly, you're lucky that she did not tear your head off for trying to flirt with her. Get back to your shift, and I don't want any more problems for the rest of the day; understood?!"

"Yes sir!" Caltius exclaimed, surprised by the sudden change of tone in Chellicks voice.

"Dismissed!" He snapped, quickly pulling up his data-slate as the Corporal scrambled out; Chellick frantically looking up the name 'Jane Vakarian'.

He found the file in the _Hierarchy _database; and the first thing that appeared was a picture of the female in question. Chellick felt his mandibles go slack as he stared at the photo; _That's Shepard alright, only now she's a Turian._

She appeared exactly how Caltius described her; very pretty, perfect length for her fringe, pinkish-red tones for her plates, white markings, emerald green eyes, crimson-red underskin. Essentially, she was Jahenne Shepard as a Turian.

Her profile read her as a colonist who had served in the defense forces, and went through a nightmare of a mission; her first mate dying while she was pregnant with her daughter, and Garrus meeting her and the two bonding shortly afterwards.

Chellick looked out towards the seemingly endless lines leading out of the checkpoints, and slumped slightly; remembering the conversation he and the squad had had with Garrus about Jane shortly before the EA attacks.

_Guess you finally got around to popping the question Garrus, but by the Spirits; you two really went all in…_ He thought, before shaking his head.

Either some new medical technology, like that old human show 'Star Trek', where the characters could outwardly make themselves look like different species; or some kind of clever disguise.

Either way? _Way,_ above his pay grade.

* * *

Liara clenched her fist as she tried her best to ignore the stares of many of her fellow Asari; their stares at her uniform in particular. She wasn't sure why she had decided to use the Ghosts clothing, but she had grown used to it long ago. It had the novelty of pockets; lots, and lots of pockets which was something a lot of Asari fashion lacked for no discernable reason. She hadn't thought much of how different it made her and her comrades look in comparison to how Asari normally dressed.

Plus, she could tell that they were silently judging her; since it was quite obvious to an Asari, she was a pureblood.

Her mother had called them; and while Liara was happy to finally see her mother after so long, she knew why this meeting was called. They were going to discuss these "Ghosts" and whether or not they were a threat to the Asari peoples.

_Just once, I want a meeting about something other than 'work'. _She thought to herself.

At the very least, it would be funny to see her Father and Mother somewhat make up; or perhaps it would be a huge fight. One would be a load off of her mind, and the other would at the very least be entertaining; if only to see her mother lose the iron mask that she had worn ever since the Relay 314 incident.

After several long minutes, they reached the official residence of "The Asari Ambassador to the Citadel Council"; a job still necessary in spite of the Asari's Council Seat.

They were quickly waved through security, as all three were instantly recognizable to the team of huntresses guarding her mother; all four Matrons having served with her since before Liara had been born.

Aethyta all but stalked to the office of the mother of her child and threw the doors wide for herself and Liara, though Shiala had to shoulder one door as it swung closed on her.

Benezia sat primly behind her desk, looking at a hologram of a hanar. "You'll have to excuse me, 'Illustrious Seeker of Ancient Truths', but something urgent has just come up. Good day."

_"Matriarch, please these talks are-" _the hologram cut out, stopping the Hanars protests.

Aethyta raised an eyebrow at Benezia. "That was almost brazen, Bene. Negotiations not going to your liking?"

Benezia stood from her desk. "The negotiations are moving at such a pace that our daughter would be a Matriarch herself before they were concluded.

She then refocused her gaze onto Liara, while Shiala faded into the background as she usually did, and Benezia smiled lightly; "hello little wing…" she said nostalgically.

If only Liara felt the same at the moment; at the moment, she was more than a little annoyed that only _now_, after going through hell and back, did her mother finally seem to make time for her. And not even time for _just _her and her father; Shiala, while a good family friend and servant, was still just that.

A family friend and servant.

Adding to that, she doubtlessly would only want to talk about Major Lee and the 'Skulls' in order to learn about them and the mystery surrounding them. Beyond barebones reports on the actions they took on the campaign so far, none of the three had said anything more out of fear the Ghosts would find out and confront them about it.

Liara had to fight down a shudder as she remembered her 'Rescue' by the skulls.

As unprofessional they acted when not on the job, when in battle they fought with a seriousness and a viciousness that rivaled the Krogan. Deciding on her course of action, Liara straightened her stance into something resembling attention; and said, "Matriarch T'Soni; Liara T'Soni reporting as requested."

The other three Asari blinked in surprise at the cold professionalism being given by the Maiden.

Then Benezia seemed to put the pieces together, and frowned heavily; before leaning back in her chair with a weary sigh, "At ease Maiden; I suppose now is the time for us to discuss that which we have been turning out tentacles white over for the past few years."

Liara seemed to deflate slightly, though Aethyta appeared to fill out slightly and glare at her former bondmate. "Yes, let's get this over with. The Ghosts."

Benezia snorted, "That name… what is a 'Ghost' in any case? I am not familiar with many human phrases; 'Skull' is something that translates across species."

Liara brought up her omnisleeve with her compiled notes. "In one of the major language groups, 'Ghost' or sometimes 'Geist' is a wrathful spirit of the deceased." She glanced up from her notes. "One of the other synonyms is 'Specter', though that seems more to refer to appearance, but I digress. The choice for naming the unit is also related to their official designation: GST, or Group for Specialized Tactics. It's likely the unit was founded in response to our own SPECTER program, and they followed this naming convention as a cultural response."

"And their purpose?" Benezia asked.

Aethyta took a breath, "Still largely unknown, but the attitudes of the four assigned to 1-4-1, point to a group who read more like vigilante's given funding and the freedom to go after those usually considered untouchable; even by Spectres, and end them." She replied. "Of course, I doubt that is all they do; but the methods they employ when dealing with their enemies..." She paused and looked at Liara.

Instantly, she knew what her father was implying and grimaced; she knew that it would be necessary. And if she didn't, someone else may try and take the memory; and they would not be as gentle as the people in this room.

"With your permission, Matriarch," Benezia actually flinched at the distance in her daughter's voice, "I will directly share my memories of these 'Ghosts' in action."

Benezia nodded, then rounded the desk and took her daughter in her hands.

"Then let us _Embrace Eternity."_

* * *

I kept my eyes closed as I sat on a bench in the Gardens of the Presidium, a light smile on my face.

It was peaceful, almost like home; but it was nothing compared to sitting on my porch in a rocking chair and drinking some iced tea. There were of course two particular improvements to the atmosphere.

"It's amazing! It's almost like we're on a planet as opposed to a space station. Adding to the fact that there's actual weather and the like, this place is actually livable in comparison to some colonies. Of course the crowds are all but unbearable; seriously, people are not meant to live like this-!" Ziva prattled on as she sat next to me, wearing her Navy Blue and Silver suit.

June was wandering about in the Gardens, knocking on the trees and examining the plants with a magnifying glass; taking notes in her little notepad like she was a professor or something.

It was bliss, and the best part was that we hadn't had any encounters with racist assholes; at least the people that came through that were racists kept to themselves and avoided us. I wore a Grey Wool Spring Long Coat, Pants, Waistcoat, and my Brown Stetson; my round rimless glasses having been polished to complete translucence.

I had dressed to impress, and my mutton chops gave me the appearance of an 18th century aristocrat. I'm pretty sure that if the photo was taken in black and white, I would very much look like I belonged.

Ziva was still talking, and I felt my thoughts get drawn away to the little box in my coat; and I remembered my father telling me how he had _planned_ to propose to my mother. Go to their favorite restaurant to celebrate their sixth anniversary of dating, but it had turned out to have been closed just that day due to health concerns.

So he had driven around the city before finally just going 'screw it', and proposing in the middle of an old school parking lot.

I palmed the little box in my pocket, and made my decision.

"Ziva…" I said slowly, and somewhat stilted; but the softness in my voice was more than enough to stop Ziva and her scientific spiel dead in her tracks.

She looked at me, and I could see her eyes brighten in curiosity; "Yes dear?" She asked.

I fumbled for the right words as I repeated, "Ziva… you and June mean the world to me-"

"And you both mean the world to me, August." She interrupted, sounding a little worried.

I huffed in amusement, what she had just said had been the whole reason I had been contemplating this decision. "Considering that we've already gone through the 'Second Phase'..." I could feel a rush of heat to my cheeks as I said that; and her eye's dimmed as well.

I gave a quick check to see that June was still marvelling over a massive Asari Tree, and returned my attention to Ziva; "Honey…" I pulled her up so that she was standing, before taking a knee and pulling out the box and opening it, revealing a gold ring with a small sapphire blue diamond in the center of it.

Her eyes widened, and her eyes flashed with tears; and I laughed, "Honey I can't imagine spending the rest of my life without you; and I know that June can't either. So Ziva'Lorah Vas Maryland; Will you marry me?"

"YES! YES-YES-YES!" She squealed, quickly hugging me with such force that I was certain that she cracked my ribs.

I began to laugh and cry as I stood up and returned her hug, June and several passers-by looking over to see what the commotion was all about. I could hear all the humans knew what had happened when they caught sight of the box and ring still in my hands; since they all started clapping and cheering.

I just smiled and hugged my Fiance; right now, this spot was all that existed in the universe as far as I was concerned. If I could pick one moment in my life that I could return to; I knew that for the rest of my life, this would be the one.

* * *

**A/N: August finally gets a small win after so long; as does Jane.**

**The idea of the Mobile Emitters was something that I recycled from the old version of my old shame "A House Divided Amongst Itself". The reworked version is… slow going, as I have said over and over again, it has a very low priority for me. So much so, that I have actually debated over whether or not to put it up for adoption.**

**In any case, I've always been fascinated with the Idea of Shepard being… changed at the start of ME2. As a game mechanic, it would have simply been the player choosing what species they wanted to be; along with the stats that came with it.**

**Story wise, if you didn't pick human, it would have been the Illusive man deciding that humanity was not able to stop the reapers; and the species you chose was the one he determined to be the one capable of stopping the reapers.**

**This is something that has a lot of story potential, as Shepard would have to work from scratch to reconnect with their lost crew; and the romancing options of course open up dramatically.**

**I should probably stop talking, because this is actually a really fascinating idea now; canon ME1, but non-Canon ME2 with Shepard as a different race. (presumably the race of the person they romanced in the last game, Male Quarian for Tali, Female Turian for Garrus, etc.)**

**Anyway, what are your thoughts on this one Ian?**

**Ian A/N: This chapter was all about family dynamics: primarily Turian social hierarchies and Asari social dynamics. While this is still a better outcome for Liara and Benezia than in canon, theirs is definitely a broken home in desperate need of repair. **

**The meet-and-greet between Jane and Garrus' family, while narratively interesting, is not particularly plot important. You'll all have to wait for Pilot's GST-Side on this matter to see how that goes down.**

**Stay tuned.**

**Pilot: Right then, link to the discord and my writing challenge is on my profile.**

**Please leave a review and tell us what you all think, the feedback helps us immensely.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	29. Meetings

Jane regretfully tapped the chest piece of her suit, and watched in the mirror with a hollow pang in her chest as 'Jane Vakarian' slowly faded away; revealing 'Jahenne Shepard' in her place.

She felt like she was leaving behind another life; a life where she could be normal, not have to deal with her stuck up fussy relatives in England, not have to be the darling of the Alliance, not have to be a Paragon of humanity.

Still… if she needed something, and didn't want the hassle of dealing with crowds of fans; 'Jane Vakarian' was coming back with a vengeance.

"It was good fun while it lasted, wasn't it?" Garrus mused.

Jane nodded absently, while Eve buzzed happily; "Dad, your sister is awesome; and I've got a little cousin to play with next time we see them." Here she seemed to sag a little, "If Grandpa wasn't so… traditional, I could at least introduce him to San, Ara, and Nek."

Both adults winced, but said nothing in reply; in reality the Normandy was an extremely tolerant place all things considered. Even Pressley had warmed up to the Quarians and Garrus's presence on the ship.

The rest of the galaxy was _not_ so tolerant.

"Alright… let's get to that damned Council Chamber and deliver this stupid report. I don't want to spend anymore time with Tevos and Valern than I have to." Jane stated, before turning to Eve; "Honey, I can trust you to make your way back to the Normandy on your own; right?"

Eve nodded, but bowed her head slightly; "Well… I wanted to meet San at the food court and maybe go shopping. You know, maybe get some _actual_ clothing for both your disguise and mine so the Emitter spends less processing power and biotic energy actually simulating clothing." She said sheepishly, even as her mandibles drooped slightly; the Turian equivalent of a blush.

Jane smirked, and decided to have a little fun with her. "Well honey, if you think it's a good idea for your Mobile Emitter; then go for it. I just better not see you running around like the ever mysterious 'Joker Incident'." She stated firmly.

Garrus just huffed, "If that boy tries anything I'll smash his damned visor into a million peices; and since he won't die from it now, I won't feel as bad."

Eve in the meantime had just transformed into her human form, and was very clearly blushing the same color as her hair. "N-n-no! He wouldn't try anything Dad! He respects you two too much."

Both of her parents just rolled their eyes, and Jane walked up and pulled Eve into a hug. "It's alright sweetheart, we're just teasing you. Be safe, okay?"

"I will mom, I will dad."

* * *

San sat on the bench, trying his absolute hardest to not fall asleep.

There were a few other human males on the bench, but all of them were just reading their omnitools; or had fallen asleep. None of them paid him much mind, beyond the occasional suspicious glare; Eve having likely reassured them that she was fine with him.

Apparently, waiting for females to try on clothes was a universal thing among species; which San and the other men had a good laugh over.

He was actually starting to fall asleep, even though it had only been an hour; when Eve emerged from the changing room, typing away on her omnitool.

San instantly jerked himself into alertness, and saw that Eve was talking to the cashier. "Yes, please deliver these to docking bay 2." She said, sending the credits to the account.

"Of course Miss… you know you look familiar, have you been here before?" The woman asked.

"Maybe you met my mom, I look exactly like her; anyway, have a good day." Eve lied smoothly, smiling and giving a wave; even as San scrambled after her.

"You get what you needed?" He asked, desperately hoping that she was. As much as he enjoyed spending time with her, _that_ had been absolute torture.

She gave him a light smile, "Yes San, I did; we're heading off to see my parents and Major Lee. Apparently he has some big news he wants to share." She informed him.

San tilted his head, but shook it off; it had to be something important if he was taking them out to dinner.

The two of them just talked the rest of the way to their destination; and they had just arrived on the block where Jane had told them to meet her, when Eve gave the faintest of flickers.

"Eve? Are you alright?" San was very concerned, not the least because of what might happen if Eve was found out.

Eve had a far off look, almost like when she first arrived on the Normandy. "There's something here."

She and San both began looking around. Eve spotted him first: a strange human with unnaturally angular and symmetrical features sitting at a streetside cafe, looking at the address Eve and San were heading to. At a glance, he would only come off as _odd_, but Eve began panicking slightly as her examination tried to calculate his facial proportions and she was approaching 99.9+ 20 decimal places of percentage and rising.

San pulled her into a hug and spun her around to try and break her fugue, and it worked. She shuddered and clutched him in fear and relief.

"He's _wrong_! He can't exist!"

San looked and quickly spotted who she was talking about. He wasn't necessarily an expert in human kinesthetics, but there was something _off_ about the Human in the anachronistic suit. San had just activated his omnitool to take a scan when the man turned to face him and Eve and smiled. She shuddered in his arms despite not looking at the stranger. There was nothing overtly malevolent about the smile, but like everything else about him it was just _off._

San himself felt like a _Kelek'miin _was staring him down.

The… person just stared at them for a moment more, then he turned and walked away down an alley. Eve finally looked towards the man, and slowly began to follow him; looking almost like she was in a trance. "Fascinating…" she murmured absently.

"Eve?" San whispered as he followed. She seemed to take no notice as she trailed after the terrifying individual.

The man turned down an alleyway, and there was a faint flash of light. Eve jolted at that and seemed to gather herself up just before sprinting to the alley, with San desperately trailing after. When they got there seconds later, they found a blind alleyway with no doors, no windows, no ladders, and no man. The pair looked at one another in concern, then silently made their way back to the house to meet up with Jane and the rest.

* * *

Garrus wasn't sure why his daughter and her best friend both looked sufficiently spooked when they walked into the restaurant; but he knew that it had to be something bad if the both of them were visibly shaking when they walked in.

They hid it well though, and the Major and Dr. Lorah were both so happy; he decided that unless the two of them brought it up directly, although he would talk with the two once they got back to the ship.

"Oh my God Garrus, I never thought I would get to be a bridesmaid! Aren't you excited!" Jane's excited voice jarred Garrus out of his thoughts, and Garrus fought down a flinch of surprise.

"Yeah, yeah! I'm just curious to see this Basilica the Major talks about a lot." He replied smoothly, and was relieved to see Jane didn't pick up on his sudden unease.

Why did he feel like they were being watched?

As if the Spirits decided to answer his question, Garrus noticed a Batarian sitting in the corner of the restaurant in a booth; sipping on some beer and reading his omnitool. He looked harmless enough, but one of his eyes was trained on the 1-4-1 operators; and another eye was trained on the door.

And Garrus could see a pistol hidden in the Batarians Jacket.

He absently clicked his mandible, catching Jane's attention. He also managed to get Lee's. Both humans looked at him as he flexed one mandible towards the voyeur. While Jane subtly tensed, Lee gave an almost exasperated huff.

"Well let's not be un-neighborly," he stood up and extended a hand to his fiance, "if he wants to meet us so badly, we should oblige him." He gave a cocked grin. "It's not like _we_ have anything to be afraid of."

Garrus, Jane, August, Ziva, Kal, Ash, Kirrahe, and the Asari' reluctantly sat down at this mysterious Batarians booth; although August seemed to be familiar with the Batarian, and was just hiding it. "Gib auf nur deine Taacke Den Fisch betragst du nicht. Give up your foolish trickery…"

"-For this fish, you cannot cheat." August finished, while his fiance visibly sagged.

"Now? You pick now of all times to meet with us?" The Quarian doctor asked, sounding more exasperated more than anything else.

"I do hope that I wasn't interrupting anything?" The Batarian asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"Oh nothing important, just the celebration of our engagement." The Ghost Major practically snarled in anger, crossing his arms.

The Batarian blinked in surprise, "Well then my Congratulations Major; I only wish that I had better news to report to your inquiry." He then turned to the others at the table, "My apologies, Obram Cokeswar; intelligence." He said, giving them all a respectful bow of his head.

"Alright, let's cut to the chase; why are you here?" Lee asked, leaning forward on the table; "You have done as I asked?"

Obram nodded as he placed a scintillating sliver of silica across to the Major. "Every scrap of information I could get from the people I have left."

"You have left? What has happened in the past few months?" Lee asked, sounding surprised. "Last I checked, you had numerous friends in the other Agencies and on the ground in the military."

Garrus was silently confused, but pushed it down; he had gone through far stranger things in the past year than what was occurring in front of him. It felt like he had walked into the middle of an important conversation with no context; and as such, was missing most of the importance behind it.

The Batarian shook his head, "Most have been turning up MIA or have been reassigned to combat posts; or posts where they no longer have access to the information that made them important." He replied, "Someone out there is not happy that I was looking into that deal between the two Generals; and is trying to clean house."

Garrus blinked again, while Jane and everyone else paled; _the Deal_… now it made sense.

Lee had hired this information broker to try and look into that Rabies producing death factory; and now some scumbag politician or officer involved with the black market or was playing both sides was covering their tracks.

Obram blinked in the offset pattern Batarians had when stressed. "I've only had one _new arrival_ in the last year to offset my losses, and frankly I'm not willing to risk them on this. We had to Scale-the-Pillars just to get Jawa off that Turian Frigate last month, so I've had to be a bit more circumspect recently. _Big Boss_ has been busy getting the _Mothership_ all set up for the new guests, so all our orders have been coming through Beta Site, rather than Strat Com."

Garrus almost wanted to raise a talon like a school-boy and ask for a primer on whatever language they were speaking, since he knew there were at least three code words in that bit of exposition. He resisted and glanced at Jane, only to notice Eve's almost laser focus on the Batarian. Her render was giving the faintest of biotic artifacts, which meant she was only expending as much processor power as she needed to maintain the image, and not correct for atmospheric effects.

He gently nudged Jane and glanced meaningfully at their daughter. _What is she sensing that we don't know about?_

Lee's face was pale, and looked like he had seen something greatly disturbing; "We have a leak then, or worse…"

_That_ Garrus did understand, but didn't say a word as the Batarian nodded; "We have a leak Major and right now, I don't trust anyone in the GST; with the exception of _You_, the rest of Kingslayer, Madam Lorah, My sister, and my new Contact here on the Citadel are the only ones I trust at the moment."

Lee's face had gone as white as a sheet of paper, and his fiance lightly slapped his cheek; and the Ghost flinched before taking breath, "Obram… Keep looking into this, and make sure you keep _all_ of it to yourself. Grant and Schultz are to know about none of this; you understand me?"

Jane shared a glance with everyone else, "Major… you do know that this is potentially treasonous." She said softly, and Garrus noted that she was glancing at Eve; who seemed to have shifted her gaze to the Major and the Doctor.

"I'm well aware of that, but I was one of the founders of the GST; and as much as I hate to say it, I've always been suspicious of Shultz. I brought him on because he was a superb spook; and it seems he was better than I was expecting." He said, looking resolute.

Jane blinked, "Quite… Byzantine this GST is." She noted.

Obram gave the most peculiar look anyone had ever seen on a Batarian; his two lower eyes slowly blinking while his upper two tracked to either side. Garrus felt like he had just been chided like a dim child.

"It's an off-books intelligence group ma'am: Byzantine is what we do."

* * *

Jane immediately cornered San in the Engineering spaces once they got back to the ship, while Garrus kept watch on the main hatchway. Kal, Tali, Liara, Ash, Wrex, and Kaiden gathering around the poor kid; Kirrahe, Shiala, and the rest making sure to distract the Ghosts as best they could.

"Eve… get down here, now." She snapped angrily.

As much as she hated yelling at her daughter, she knew that the two of them were hiding something from her; and whatever it was, it had spooked both of them. _And just what spooked Eve regarding the Batarian and Major Lee and his Fiance?_ She wondered as well.

Eve appeared in her human form, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment; and Eve in particular looked frightened, actually shuffling behind San when she popped in.

Jane and Garrus both glanced worryingly at one another, before she relaxed her shoulders and looked her daughter's avatar in the eyes.

"Eve, you were anything but distracted during lunch. You can talk to me and your dad; what was it about the Batarian that upset you?"

"It… it wasn't just that Batarian in particular… it was what happened beforehand that scared us." Eve started slowly.

Jane crossed her arms, "What happened then?" She asked, fearing that perhaps they had had an encounter with a racist Batarian.

San and Eve looked pensively between each other before San spoke up. "Well ma'am, we were heading to the address to meet everyone when we saw a human watching the apartment." He brought up a hologram from his Omnitool. Jane and Garrus looked hard at the image of the strangely featured man.

"There was something just... _off _about him. Eve was really scared at first saying he couldn't exist," the holographic girl flickered in distress at the memory, "but then he looked at us like he _knew_ we were watching him. That's when Eve..." He trailed off uncomfortably.

"_Our time is running...out."_ Eve's tone was strangely distant while the cadence was disjointed.

Jane and Garrus blinked in confusion, while Sans' eyes bulged out of his head in worry and fear. _No! Not again! _He thought. He quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, "Eve! Eve!"

The AI's trance wasn't broken though, and her gaze was locked on her parents. "Huh?"

"Eve…" Jane said slowly, "what did you just say?" She asked.

"I..." she started flickering and crying all at once, "I don't know! There's a three hour hole in my memory logs, but I know the actual time was only 3.8 seconds!"

Her form resolidified as Jane scooped her into a hug and she began weeping openly, though her tears had a strange fractal quality about them that was both beautiful and frightening. "I just remember that I needed to tell you our time was running out. What's happening to my mind mommy?"

Garrus quickly knelt down and joined them, while San started to move away awkwardly; until Eve grabbed him and sobbed into his shoulder. "What's happening… what's happening… Why can't I remember it?" She wailed.

Both parents looked at San with eyes that promised hell itself if answers weren't forthcoming.

San shuffled uncomfortably in the massed attention, and for the first time in months wished he had his visor on. "When he looked at us, he smiled and walked away. Eve began acting oddly, like she was in a trance. He turned a corner and there was a flash of light. We followed him, but there was nothing there. I took scans but I don't understand what they're telling me." He printed the data onto a Silicon-Carbide chip and handed it to the Commander.

She quickly shot a look towards Kal, and handed it to him; "Scan Eve's AI core first; and then take a look at what is on this." She turned to everyone else, "we'll reconvene once the Quarians are done with their scans. Stall the Ghosts in the meantime. Dismissed!"

* * *

"So what did you guys find?" Garrus asked, resisting the urge to growl. "What is wrong with my daughter." He demanded.

Kal looked at his fellow Quarians for a moment, before looking back at Jane and Garrus. His visor was off, allowing everyone to see the unease on his face. "Commander, she has a... what did you call it Nina?"

"A Fractal Data Kernel." The Quarian computer expert sounded both frightened and excited at the same time. "It's a method of storing arbitrarily large quantities of data in a limited memory system. These were just theory before the Morning War, and even the best programmers today would take decades to write a code that simply _looked _like this, much less ran without crashing everything."

"You mean it could hurt Eve?" Shepard asked menacingly, her mother bear instincts roaring into her mind full force.

"No ma'am, I mean if we were to uncompress this file it might displace all the information in every data-system on the citadel and still be in a partially compressed state." Nina nervously ran a hand through her hair. "And before you ask, no this isn't a Geth runtime protocol. They... _look_ like construction grids meant to link to one another. _This," _she displayed a strange shifting spiral pattern on the data-center holotable, "is meant to engulf all the information around it. It even runs like an active program."

"Think of it as being the programming equivalent of a dyson sphere." Fon interjected.

Kal huffed and tapped one of the data cores. "We have the Kernel mostly isolated for now, but it's like it has threads, or tendrils still connected to Eve's core. We don't know what would happen if we snipped it, and it seems content to count sideways in it's corner for now."

Tali nodded, "It just sits there in the corner muttering to itself, for lack of a better term." She said, trying to lighten the mood; only to whither under Jane and Garrus's glares.

After a moment of letting the younger woman stew, Jane asked; "So… where are the Ghosts and San? I don't see them, and none of you are keeping them occupied."

"They've quarantined themselves for lack of a better term." Ashley replied, "Major Lee is in his quarters, and hasn't left once; Phil is currently sitting in the Mako calibrating the main gun, Colt is pacing around his cot muttering to himself, and Archer is praying to the… whatever gods the Cherokee pray too." She explained, looking uncomfortable.

Lia nodded as well, "San is with Eve in her core; the poor girl's still very unnerved, and San's trying to keep her distracted for the time being while we talked with you."

Liara looked around at everyone else, "So are we not going to talk about how the normally unflappable 'Skulls' are now having silent mental breakdowns about what that Batarian told them; or that Mysterious 'Human' that triggered Eves freak out?" She asked, looking unnerved.

Kirrahe just tapped nervously on his omnitool; "Would feel same way as the Ghosts; finding out you have traitor in your midst always unsettling." He said.

Kaiden just shook his head and sat down with a huff, "Pressley's already set us on course for Feros; but according to the intel Councilor Sparatus has given us, we cannot use the relay to enter the system. We'll have to use standard FTL to do so, and sneak into the system; as there was a whole fleet of Geth there. Although they believe the fleet has since moved on, they don't want to take the chance."

"That's about a month's worth of Travel." Jane pointed out.

"Just about, but if this works out… we can get info on where he is and capture Saren, and cut the head off the snake; and we'll be back just in time for Armistice week." Tali said.

* * *

San just held Eve close as she silently whimpered in his arms.

They were alone in her AI core, as once the scans on her core had been done; Eve had essentially banned everyone except San and her parents from entering. She wasn't really willing to trust anyone at the moment, and seemed content to mostly cry to herself; while San just held her.

San had seen others act like this before; both on the fleet and during his brief stay on the Citadel.

One of the upperclassmen on his Liveship had an encounter with one of the males on the ship; and she had been unfortunate enough to have been 'Forcefully Bonded' with the man, to the point that she had been impregnated at the ripe old age of seventeen. Since Quarians were not legally adults until they completed their pilgrimage, the punishment was twice as harsh on the sick _Bosh'tet _who had done it; and he had been one of the only cases San knew of where execution had been carried out, as opposed to mere exile.

The poor woman had acted just like Eve had for months, and had only grown worse after the birth of her child; who she had treated with near disdain. Eventually, she had taken her own life by removing her suit, and San still remembered the Marines wheeling her body away while her child wailed in the arms of one of the ship's doctors.

As much as he didn't want to, San couldn't stop the dark thoughts from touching the edges of his vision; _At least she has me… The poor woman on the fleet had no one…_ He thought to himself.

"San… it was so wrong… he should not exist and yet he did." She whispered.

San refocused on his friend. "Can you tell me _why_ he shouldn't exist?"

"He… he was _perfect_… He was perfectly symmetrical; no flaws or imperfections on his face. I calculated a 99.9 Percent perfection, up to twenty decimal places before you stopped me." She rambled softly, not really explaining herself beyond that.

"That's, really odd-"

"It's impossible is what it is!" Eve flickered out of his grasp and reappeared a yard away and began restlessly pacing. "_Nothing_ in this universe is that perfectly symmetrical, not even if it's manufactured! And the signal he was, giving off..." She stopped and hugged herself. "I don't know what it was, but just _analyzing_ it altered my processor speed."

She looked over at San. "I can't account for three hours, San. I know I didn't go anywhere, but I still know I experienced three hours, but the only things I retained were the message and a reading of background radiation."

San stood up and hesitantly approached Eve. "That's something at least, right? We can track that."

Eve shook her head and hugged San close. "It's all over the ship," she whispered in his ear. "I picked up the same signature on Lee, Ziva and the Batarian Obram in the cafe. My internal sensors show the same signature on all the Ghosts, and traces of it scattered all over the ship in areas where they haven't been, but others from the GST have."

San blinked, then felt a measure of rage well up within him; "You mean that they helped him… _hurt _you?!" He exclaimed, taking her hands. Then he blinked, _Where did _that_ come from?_

She shook her head. "No. I checked the ship's logs. Several months ago, there was a supply transfer and an in-situ equipment upgrade. None of the Ghosts go into the main magazine or sensor mast, but the delivering team did. That's where I'm picking up the faint traces. I can calculate the rate of decay by cross checking that against how much the field degrades around Lee and the others. It's an _exact _match."

San felt himself calm slightly, but nonetheless asked; "So… what does that mean? Do the Ghosts work for this mysterious human?"

Eve visibly sagged and drew him into a tight hug, even as she transformed into her Quarian form; "I don't know… but I hope I never see that _thing_ again."

* * *

**Pilot A/N: I won't lie, both Ian and I are a bit… uncertain about this chapter; and due to its short length, I don't have much to say about it beyond saying the end of the first act is coming.**

**And hoo-boy is it going to be a doozy.**

**The Truth about the Ghosts is starting to be unraveled, at least to Eve and San. And I will say that poor Eve is going to be getting some more hits to her sanity as we reach the end of this arc.**

**Alright, that's it for me; how 'bout you Ian?**

**Ian A/N: Only that the cameo near the end here and it's aftermath were fun to write. It gives some hints about what is going to be happening down the road. No spoilers, so stay tuned.**

**Pilot: Right then, link to my discord server and my writing challenge is on my profile.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you guys think; the feedback helps us immensely.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated, and don't forget to check out our other work "Half Life: Entanglement".**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	30. Down Time

It was odd to Liara that the Ghosts, the dreaded of the Terminus, and the source of many rumours within the upper echelons of Asari society; were, for lack of a better term, silently freaking out at the moment.

It was natural she supposed that a group of what were essentially vigilante's given the funding and freedom to do whatever they so chose against the scum of the galaxy considered untouchable even to the Spectres finding out that their leadership was potentially dirty would be disturbing to anyone.

But still, they seemed to be taking this especially bad; and it made little sense to Liara, considering how… ruthless they were in combat.

She stood at the entrance to the Ghost's quarters area, wondering how she could even broach the subject. _Excuse me, master killers of sentients, but what is upsetting you so much?_

She shook her head at the ridiculousness of the thought, but it might just be what she had to do. As one of her professors had once said, _knowledge is not gained without first asking questions._

She quietly stepped through the hatch to the hanger bay, and of all the things she was expecting; Liara wasn't sure what she saw in front of her at the moment had crossed her mind.

Colt and Phil were both jogging around the bay, but even from the entrance hatch, Liara could see the almost mechanical way both were doing so. Same with Archer, who was absently sharpening her Axe's; a hollow look in her eyes as she simply stared off into the darkness in the corners of the bay.

Asari called it 'Empty Peace', humans called it a 'Thousand Yard Stare'.

But it was Major Lee, the ever stoic Nomad, that was the most concerning. His tanned skin was very pale, his eyes had a glazed look to them as he absently filled out forms on a mini table next to him; and on that table was something that Liara remembered seeing in his Mansion.

Something called a 'Phonograph Record', which had apparently been a gift to him from Dr. Lorah.

At the moment, it was playing old human instrumental music; and Liara's ears strained to capture the non-english words. _"In einem Bächlein helle da schoß in froher Eil, Die launische Forelle vorüber wie ein Pfeil. Ich stand an dem Gestade und sah in süßer Ruh, Des muntern Fischleins Bade im klaren Bächlein zu…"_

She gave a soft cough, and all four Ghosts instinctively made a grab for their weapons, before checking their motions and stopping on realizing it was only her. The Major gave her an unfocused look, before asking; "What can I do for you Doctor?", not even bothering to stop the music, still absently writing in the documents on the table.

She suddenly wished she had paid more attention to her Xeno-psychology courses from 20 years ago. Still, nothing would be learned without first asking questions. "I had hoped to provide _you_ with some assistance. This recent revelation has concerned you, that much is certain; but _this_," she glanced meaningfully around the bay. "Betrayals are an unfortunate reality, but this seems more... personal. Could you please explain it to me?"

The four looked at each other and seemed to have a silent debate amongst themselves.

Whatever it was, Nomad seemed to be in the minority; and it seemed that his willpower to keep secrets was undermined by his trust in his teammates. He sighed, and lowered the volume on the archaic device next to him and set down his pen. "Well… it's very simple Doctor; you are currently looking at four of the nine founders of the Group for Specialized Tactics. Technically Eight, since Grant was never really around until we really started to get off the ground. The original eight were all assigned to Omega as a Black Op, and we were the testbed for the GST; and now we find out that one of the original eight _might_ be a traitor." He said, almost monotonic in his speech; but Liara could almost sense the pain underneath it.

She had expected a tale of betrayal, but had not expected that a group as infamous as the GST might have had such_ small_ origins. "May I ask why you founded such an institution originally? The galaxy is already awash in secretive agencies and master assassins. What drove you to found something like this?"

"Originally? We weren't anything more than some vigilantes given targets and told to go nuts." Colt replied, huffing slightly from his run.

"But then others started to flock to us." Phil commented, drinking some water.

"And the Boss here saw potential in them, the gods know why." Archer finished.

"The 'Boss'?" She looked on as the Ghosts unconsciously glanced at Lee. They all seemed to realize what they had just done, as they instantly became more guarded. _Still…_ "The GST was your creation?" The leader of the Ghost team frowned. "Then this is not merely a personal betrayal for you, but a corruption of something you created."

Lee looked down, and nodded slowly; "You haven't had kids yet, and thank God and his angels that something like this hasn't happened to June. But it honestly feels like my child was taken away from me; and I come back to find that instead of the person that I tried to raise them to be, they've become utterly reprehensible trash… Well… not that extreme, but you get my point." He finally said, taking off his glasses and wiping them with a piece of cloth.

He just shook his head, "The GST has grown far more than I thought it ever would; I'm not the official leader, nor am I the one calling the big shots anymore. Schultz and Grant for all intents and purposes were not there, so I was the one in charge on the ground. It's grown far more under their leadership than I could have ever hoped to take it… But I feel like I sold my soul to the devil to do so. And the weirdest thing, is that I only feel that _now_, not way back when."

"What do you think you could have seen, looking back? Can you think of any reason you would have had to doubt?" She asked, going for broke at this point; since she had learned more in the past few minutes than in the past few months.

Lee looked down, while the other three looked at each other; "I suppose Schultz and Grant going behind our back to make us 'Official' in order to get us funding." Archer finally said, as it looked like Lee was not inclined to talk any further.

Liara was at a loss as to what to ask next. She had learned more of the GTS in the last five minutes of conversation than all of Councilor Tevos' machinations over the last two years.

Unfortunately, it seemed like that was all she was going to get; as the Ghosts clammed up afterwards.

Still… It was a lot to think about.

* * *

Ashley absently cleaned one of the Ghosts Beowulfs, Kal sat next to her as he disassembled and reassembled a pistol.

Ash gave a soft smile as Kal absently scratched his beard, and just shook her head. _If only Grandfather could see me now; he's rolling in his grave at the moment I bet. _She thought to herself.

"You know, whenever they asked me how I saw myself in five years; I never had a good answer. If they told me that I would be part of some interspecies task force, dating a suitless Quarian, and befriending Asari, and a Krogan… well first I'd be confused and wonder how I got there in the first place. But after that… well I'd say that things are looking up." She remarked absently.

Kal chuckled, "Seems like everything changed for me the day that I met the Major and his team back on that Blue Suns slaver outpost." He replied.

"Hm…" Ash hummed, smiling lightly as she leaned her back against Kal's left side; remembering the night on New Kurdistan. "How's our new adopted Brother and Sister?" She asked.

"Their lessons are progressing rather well, your parents were quite happy to take them in; to my surprise." Kal replied, before sighing; "If only we could guarantee Fyodor's safety, but the fleets on the other side of the galaxy in the exact opposite direction we need to go. Plus, I don't think I could bring myself to forcibly separate him from Lia."

Ash gave him a questioning look, and he sighed again; "If we return to the fleet; Fyodor would immediately go to his closest living relatives. Lia may be his surrogate mother now, but that won't matter to Fyodor's clan." He explained.

"Well, is there anywhere you can think of we could drop them both off?" Ash asked absently as she disassembled a receiver. "The Normandy isn't exactly the safest place for children _or _Pilgrims. We've got the mixed bag of crew; certainly _someone_ knows a safe haven for a Quarian family."

Kal shook his head, "Unlike humans, we aren't welcome on the Citadel." He grumbled, still remembering saying goodbye to Ara and Nek as Ash's sister led them away. "We have no secret colonies and the like; if any were discovered, the Council and non-Council races will come down on it like a fire storm."

She huffed as she scrubbed a bolt face. "I know, but sending Ara and Nek away for their own safety but leaving Fyodor, Lia, San and the others because it would be inconvenient seems _wrong._"

He just shook his head as he listened to her talk; before a thought popped into his mind, "Ash… What do we do when this whole mess with Saren is over?"

She thought for a moment. "Back to the grind I guess. I still have a year on my hitch, and only five more until I secure my pension. I'd be an idiot to give that up."

"I mean _us_… Ash we're bonded…" He said sadly.

"I know. That's why the pension is important." She set the weapon parts aside and turned and faced Kal. "I don't know if you know that much about human military politics, but serving in the Systems Alliance Armed Forces when you have the name 'Williams' is a long road to nowhere. Until Eden Prime, I'd been toughing it out just to stick it to the Veteran's Department. I'd planned to either retire and force the SAAF to pay a Williams their well earned due, or go out blazing and force them to commemorate one. Now," She rested a hand on Kal's shoulder, "I have something worth living for besides spite."

She turned back to her gun parts. "And that means planning for the future. In five years, I can retire at 15 years in service with a full pension and have plenty of years left in me to live a life with you."

"You know what Doctor 'Lorah said about her cure; the possibility of interspecies hybrids is very distinct, if not inevitable." Kal replied, raising an eyebrow; smirking slightly as Ash blushed, "So if its children, I think we have that covered."

She promptly slugged him on the shoulder and started messing with her bun; "I didn't say that was a problem." she took breath and got more serious, "Kal, what about our peoples? Sure the possibility exists now, legally and biologically once the treaty and cure are announced; but _culturally_? I don't think people are ready for that."

Kal just smiled and took her hand, and kissed her; "Well… we all need to start somewhere."

* * *

Tali yelped and ducked under the calculated Axe swing; then grunted as the kick landed into her chest.

She slammed onto the padded floor with a loud grunt; and froze as she felt the cool touch of metal on her throat. "Dead…" She heard Archer state flatly, but the Quarian Combat Engineer could _hear_ the smirk on the older woman's face.

_Why did I agree to this?_ Tali thought to herself as the pressure from the, thankfully dulled, rubber coated blades was lifted from her neck. "What did I do wrong this time?" She sighed, more resigned than angry at this point.

"You failed to keep moving after you successfully avoided the first blow, thus leaving yourself open to attack." Archer replied, sheathing her blades and holding out a calloused hand; which Tali grudgingly took.

The other females all gave quiet chuckles, which died down when the human _Kelek'miin_ gave them all a harsh look. "I very much doubt you all would do any better, with the exception of Ms. 'Ciram and Ms. Williams there; as they have had the training on how to handle close range combat." She reprimanded the group, before tilting her head back and forth, "Well… Ms. T'Soni and Ms. Shiala perhaps; but they use Biotics and as such don't count in my books."

Shiala snorted, "Yes, I'd _love_ to see what your Axes could do against a Biotic warrior." She said, a hint of a challenge in her tone.

But to Tali's surprise, the normally hot blooded human female didn't rise to the bait; which said a lot about how… _distracted_ the skulls had been as of late. Instead the woman shook her head, "My weapons are ancestral and I, like the rest of my fellow Ghosts, am a firm believer in the idea of 'Older is Better'; in specific cases of course. But unless I was suicidal, the last thing I would ever do is get into a melee-fight with you or any biotic." She replied, walking over to a bench and grabbing a towel; quickly drying her face off. "And quite frankly, you guys may be ready to meet your Goddess or Ancestors; but I'm not ready to meet mine."

"You speak from experience?" Shiala asked, raising an eyeridge; crossing her arms.

Archer snorted, while Tali looked back and forth between them; sensing that the Battle Matron wanted a fight, even as Archer said, "Four dead Asari Blue Suns while I used throwing knives, my Axes, and a pistol attest to my skill; and the fact that I am still alive speaks to my luck and pragmatism."

Tali stepped between the two while still looking back and forth. "Hey, hey; we're here to learn hand-to-hand, not compare busts."

The Matron snorted while eyeing Archer. "I have a decade of combat experience for every year she's been alive. What's she going to teach you that I couldn't?"

Nina stepped directly in her path. "We have no idea, since in the past several months you haven't _bothered_ to share; Ghost Archer," she jerked her head back towards the human, "has. You had your chance to impress us with your skill and camaraderie and you blew it."

Archer just shook her head and sighed, "Ladies… you don't have to step in on my behalf, though I do thank you." She stepped forward and gave Shiala a calculating look, "You may have been fighting far longer than I have; but my people have been born into war. The Cherokee, and our ancestors, have often been mistaken for peace loving hunter-gatherers; but in reality we are warriors through and through. Ever since humanity began, my people have fought in the vast forests and mountain chains of Appalachia; and I am the inheritor of their abilities and techniques." She said cooly, absently spinning one of her training axes in her hands.

Tali looked back and forth between the two females, "And you're willing to share, which is why we're all here, right?"

Shiala huffed while Archer didn't break her gaze, "I learn best by doing. I've heard a great deal about your vigilante gang, but somehow we've never been on the same field at the same time. Here, I'll even the field." She tapped her omnitool, and a tiny spark jumped from the nape of her neck to her tendrils, indicating her Bio-Amp was now off.

Tali's eyes dimmed even as her fellow Pilgrims looked at each other; Liara in particular had a guilty expression on her face, which Tali knew that she would have to investigate later. But at the moment, she was focused on the Killer and the Protector sizing each other up.

Tali looked at Nina, and the Marine nodded; Tali sighed and placed a hand on her face, _"Kheelah_, okay… Just… try not to break anything; the last thing we need is the Major or the Commander breathing down our necks."

Both females nodded and walked to separate corners of the bay; and Archer stepped behind a pile of crates. "Oi Nina, Tali; would you two mind helping me here?" She asked.

Tali shrugged while Nina said, "Sure…" The two walked around the corner, "What do you-_Kheelah_!"

Both women flinched and looked away on instinct, and Archer just snorted; "Oh grow up, it's not like you haven't seen it on whatever Fornex articles you all are into." She said tossing her upper garments away, and beginning to undo her pants, grabbing something from her cot. "Here," she tossed a roll towards Nina, then Tali; "Bind my chest and lower area, my ancestors may have gone into battle nude; but that doesn't mean I want my boobs flying around for her to grab. Nor do I want to spread my legs for the whole ship to see. You two decide amongst yourselves which you want to cover." She ordered, even as she pulled her hair out of her 'ponytail'; and began to braid it instead.

Tali struggled to speak for a moment, trying not to stare at the now naked human while trying to fight down a blush; before saying, "W-why…?"

Archer shrugged, even as Nina winced and began wrapping the stretchy cloth around the female's lower parts; "It's because this is so thin and tight, she won't be able to grab it and use it as leverage against me. It'll keep my breasts restrained, so she can't use that; and it'll keep my lady parts covered, which is more for my own modesty than anything else." She explained.

The two worked as quickly and methodically as they could, but both were more than a little put off by the relative intimacy of the scenario. Tali hadn't even seen this much of her _own_ skin before the cure, outside of a few rare opportunities at a clean room. She'd certainly never had another person's bare flesh under her hands before. She mentally groused at that.

_First person I have this much intimate contact with, and it's one of two psycho _Bosh'tets_ about to beat each other senseless._

Tali swallowed, fighting down her blush; just glad that her new _Seemas_ covered most of her face still. "Alright, we're done; right?" She asked looking down at Nina, who nodded; and Tali could see that the Marine seemed similarly nonplussed, which was quite plain to see to any Quarian since the _Seemas_ only stopped just above the nose.

Archer just huffed, "Good, and if both come apart during this fight I will kick both of your asses." She stated simply.

Tali and Nina shared a look, even as Archer reached into her foot locker and grabbed a handful of feathers; she stared at them for a moment, before putting them into her braid at different points. Then she withdrew what looked like paint, and quickly painted a red stripe across her face at eye level; and a few shite slashes across her forehead and cheeks.

She looked at them both and nodded, "Alright… let's get this over with shall we?"

The three stepped into the bay, and Tali almost laughed when all her fellow females visibly recoiled in Shock; except for Ash who just laughed and walked over. "I suppose you really do take that Native American thing seriously huh?"

Archer just smirked, "Well, my latina sister, ask me again when Cinco de Mayo rolls around; then you'll have room to talk."

Ash rolled her eyes, and they turned to Shiala; who wore a simple workout top and shorts.

Tali immediately took note that they were loose fitting, even as she grabbed Archers training Ax's; seeing that the Human was sizing Shiala up, and taking note of the choice in wardrobe as well.

"Hm… No nudity taboo amongst Asari, and she knows loose clothing gives me a grappling advantage; likely intentional ploy to see what I do, but what…" She murmured.

Jaali, Leah, and Lia all stepped up to look the human over; before looking at Tali and Nina, both of whom just shrugged. Liara had walked over to Shiala and was engaged in a harsh, but quiet conversation; which Liara seemed to lose, as she huffed angrily and stalked back to where she had been.

"Rules?" Archer asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No serious injuries, and no biotic abilities for me." Shiala replied, drawing a training knife as she did so.

Archer nodded, and looked at Nina; "Alright, would you be so kind Ms. Ciram."

"Of course." Nina replied, while Tali gave an awkward but reassuring pat on Archer's shoulder; trying not to blush from the skin to skin contact.

Nina stepped to the middle and off to the side; looked at both women and nodded, "Alright… Three-" Both women tensed, Shiala gripping her knives while Archer spun her Tomahawks into a better grip.

"Two-" Archer crouched low, while Shiala rolled her shoulders.

"One-" To an outsider's perspective, both women seemed to relax; when in reality they were loosening their muscles in preparation for the fight.

"Fight!"

* * *

Shepard sighed and rubbed her eyes.

She hated pissing contests, and it seemed like that was what was happening between General Grant and Councilor Sparatus. That was the _least_ nefarious thing that she could think of at the moment; it was the only thing that made sense, what with Grant sending them to deal with the Imam, and Sparatus trying to direct them towards Balak and Saran.

Still, it was amusing to watch as Archer and Shiala hammered away at each other on screen.

It was even more amusing to watch all the Quarian women and Liara blush as one as Archer practically ripped off Shiala's workout shirt; while Shiala kept trying to use Archer's wrappings to get a grip, and failing due to its elastic nature.

Archers' taunts of "trying to cop a feel" and the like were even more amusing.

"How likely is it that they end up 'Melding' in the showers?" Jane asked absently, enjoying the classical music from the phonograph record. There was something… relaxing and real, using something so old.

"Eh, seventy-thirty against it; Aya prefers guys, but she did go at it with this one Asari chick on an undercover mission." August replied, reading the orders that had been given to them with a light frown.

It was good to see that August seemed to be feeling a little better, if he was more comfortable talking was anything to go by. Still, "What do you think of our orders?" She asked, turning away from the screen.

The Ghost looked up at the screen, and snorted in amusement as he noted that Aya was still giving instructions to the rest even as she fought, "Well… In all honesty I think Grant's is more pragmatic, but… I don't know what we should do about it." He finally said. "I'm used to kill orders, but _Capture_ orders… that's different."

"Certainly a lot trickier." Shepard agreed, absently sipping her drink; internally thankful that she had found Colts Pepsi stash. "But… I think that it would be better to capture Saren, if only so we can get the information he holds in his head."

August nodded, "I agree, but I'm just saying we need to be careful about this; one false move can end with one or even all of us in a shallow unmarked grave… or worse…" He trailed off while he watched Archer disarm Shiala, even as the Asari dodged a Tomahawk throw.

Jane used the duel on screen to help hide her surprise; she had fully expected to need to argue for Saren's life, but Lee had agreed immediately. "No arguments in favor of your superiors' decisions on the matter?" She asked, even as she rubbed her eyes, cursing her lack of sleep the past few weeks.

Lee didn't respond for a long moment, before he finally said; "I want answers, and Grant gave me some helpful advice the night before we departed on our first mission. Something to the effect of, 'Don't expect Answers to be given to you, or for you to stumble across them; seek them out for yourself'."

Jane huffed. "He's been giving some mixed signals as far as I can tell." stifling a yawn as she talked.

August gave her a concerned look, "Having trouble sleeping?" He asked, even as Archer and Shiala finished their fight with a 'mutual kill' but Archer being determined the winner; Archer being 'critically wounded', but a 'beheading' beat a 'Stomach stab'.

She scrunched her face in frustration. "I've been in every campaign and conflict of note in the last decade, and while I haven't always slept easy I've never been haunted by dreams."

August narrowed his eyes, "Haunted by dreams? You've been having nightmares?" He asked, leaning forward onto the table.

Jane frowned. "No, I've had nightmares before; Elysium, Akuze... These are different, I'm a monstrous version of myself; or I'm a man, or the Systems Alliance never formed and I'm a mercenary. They are all very _coherent_; like they're directed, rather than the abstract meandering paths dreams take." She looked at Lee with a strange expression on her face. "I can _read_ in these dreams. That doesn't happen, to anyone."

Lee leaned back into his chair, seemingly unconconvinced somewhat; until a thought flashed in his eyes, "Jane tell me, what is the most… common theme amongst all of them; and if you've had repeat dreams, which one has been the most recurring?" He finally asked.

"Calamity," Lee tensed at the word, "the Normandy, and the Migrant Fleet. The first two are a constant, but the third is the most recurrent. I'm _male." _Her voice was tinged with mild disdain. "I seem to be building towards some kind of climax of sorts, like it's one of your episodic adventure shows. And... seafood? _Bosh'tet_, I can't really remember for the life of me."

Normally, saying an Alien curse garnered some strange looks from civilians; or chuckles from other servicemen on the ship. But Jane didn't even realize she had said it, and Lee's eyes widened an almost imperceptible degree. "_Bosh'tet?_" He asked, "Has Tali been trying to improve your _Kheelish_? Because you just said that like a native."

She gawped and sputtered for a moment. "This, this right here is what bugs me! The other day I stubbed my toe on the terminal in my quarters and swore up a storm; all in fluent _Palavanese_. Garrus congratulated me on my fluency, and I _still_ don't know what I actually said!"

Lee narrowed his eyes for a moment, _"Co planu'jesz pod'arować Ewie na uro'dziny?"_ He asked.

"_Może jakieś no'we proc'esory lub jej własny kos'tium Quarian, Sehni i Raelk."_ She replied absently, then she blinked; "What the hell did I just say… what did you say for that matter?

Lee leaned back in his chair, "_'What did you plan to get Eve for her Birthday?'_ was what I said; and what you said was, _'Perhaps some new processors, or her own Quarian suit, Sehni, and Raelk.'_" He said, raising an eyebrow. "Which is a good choice I might add, since you could hide the mobile emitter in the suit; and she would only have to make her head look real." He said absently, before stopping on seeing how pale Jane had become.

Jane growled. "If I find out anyone's been lurking outside my cabin muttering in _Keelish_ like your 'Field of Dreams' movie, someone's going out an airlock."

After a long and awkward silence, Lee said; "Jane, how 'bout you go to Chakwas and get some sleeping pills. They'll probably help you sleep better at least."

Shepard grimaced at the thought of using sleep aids, and retorted; "How about you? You have minor insomnia, and yet I don't see you taking sleep aids of any kind. What if the ship needs me and I can't wake up properly."

Lee snorted, "Please, I've adapted long ago; and I don't take sleep aids because that would make it worse for me in the long term. Jane, the ship ran just fine for a couple of months with half of 1-4-1 gone; I think we'll be fine."

Jane and August stared each other down for a long moment, before she finally sighed and admitted defeat; "Fine…" She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Fine, I'll get the damned pills, if it keeps me from dreaming about Calamari tonight. I'll see you in the morning Major."

Lee gave a strained smile in response, and nodded; and Jane left the room, stalking down to the Med Bay to take the sleeping aides she had held off for so many weeks.

Once that was done, Jane went to her quarters and slowly flopped down into her bed, grimacing the whole while; already feeling Chakwas' sleep aids kicking in. Hopefully, she could get a decent night's sleep; or at the very least, experience the dreams she had been having of late fully.

* * *

_Jane blinked as she looked around._

_It was the first time she had been conscious of… anything truthfully; though She couldn't stop the scowl from spreading across her face._

_Blinking again, Jane idly realized that whatever kind of dream she was currently in, she had no control over her body. Her blinking was not done by her own actions; no, it was by… whoevers point of view she was watching from._

_Suddenly, she could hear foriegn thoughts; and strangely, they felt familiar yet different._

Oh Kheelah… I hope she'll be okay…_ Jane blinked again as she wondered why she would think something like that; and she suddenly felt her vision clear. _

_She was inside a spaceship, and her vision was tinted black; but she could still see just fine, in fact her vision was a little brighter and sharper. Suddenly, she stood and began walking and pacing the room; and Jane realized that it wasn't _her_ doing these actions. A scream reached her ears, and Jane cringed even as she recognized the sound for what it was. _

_A woman in labor giving birth._

"Bosh'tet_! I should be in there with them!" Jane suddenly said, but as before it wasn't her voice; but instead it almost sounded like her father. But younger, less refined than she remembered, and it had a distinct Quarian Accent._

_Then a familiar voice reached Jane's ears, one that made her want to break down crying in worry and fear. "Jon… Calm down; by the _Spirit's_, you're making _me _nervous old friend." Garrus said off to her left._

_Jane… Jon… the person Jane was watching turned to her Husband… her bond-brother; "Easy for you to say! You're not being forced to sit here and wait while your bondmate gives birth to a child in the middle of the Ancestors damned Apocalypse!" He snapped in reply, but there was no real malice behind the words; just worry for Tali, and the slightest hints of excitement at the prospect of being a father._

* * *

**Pilot A/N: As before, not much to say here.**

**Next chapter **_**will**_** get insane, I can guarantee you that; and as before, the idea of the multiverse being out there is once again being shown to both you and to Jane. In this case, it's the Quarian version of Shepard; Jon'Shepard, which is a reference to the long dead fic 'Born Quarian'.**

**Beyond that, Jon won't be making anything more than cameo's for the duration of this story; or will he?**

**Alright, what have you got Ian?**

**Ian A/N: This one is all about the downtime and trying to process. There were a couple of bombshells dropped on our rag-tag band, so it stands to reason that people would need time to digest. **

**Active missions don't normally give you the best conditions for healthy self-examination, but you take what you can get. **

**Pilot: Right then, check my profile for the link to the discord and check out my writing challenge.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you guys think.**

**A TV Tropes page would be much loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	31. Feros

Tali wiped the sweat off of her forehead, looking at the other engineers doing the same while sitting or crouching next to their stations in abject misery. Quietly, she cursed that stupid movie; now everyone was acting like they were in one of those metal death traps, and the ship was paying the price for it.

The Engineering area was the coolest, but that wasn't saying much; and since the coolant system was still broken, they had taken everything except gravity and the atmospheric generators offline to give more power to the engines without increasing reactor output.

_If only we had one more day, we could have fixed it in time._ She grumbled to herself. _Why did we mess with that stupid Ojuiji Board._ Shaking her head, Tali hissed "Eve!"

The AI quickly appeared next to her, mostly translucent in her Quarian form; meaning that she was still focusing on other matters than her hologram. "Yes?" She asked.

"What's the charge status of the Mass-Core Capacitors? I want to see if I can use our thermo-electric convertors to bleed off some of his heat so we can get into the Heat-Sinks and fix those damned pumps."

Eve flickered hesitantly. "I'll try, but we just picked up an FTL emergence, and there aren't supposed to be any other ships in this system."

* * *

Lee adjusted the glasses on the edge of his nose while looking at the hologram of the unknown ship. "It looks like the 'Red October' had a bastard child with the 'Botany Bay'." He winced as he tried to remember if either Roddenbury or Clancy had created anything in this universe.

"I'll just assume that's another obscure classic movie reference." Jane didn't bother looking over. "What do we know, and what can we infer?"

Lee quickly wiped his glasses as he looked at the new contact. "It reminds me of the old American Nuclear Attack Submarines from the 21st century, adapted to work in space of course." He stated.

Pressley scowled at the hologram. He tended to do that a lot recently. "I'm more concerned about the 'Anomaly' we picked up that let us know it was in-system." Everyone frowned at that; the sensors always kicked out an 'Anomaly' designation when they detected a superluminal scanning beam. "That doesn't look like anything any other Citadel species would build, and nobody _but_ this Ship is supposed to have that tech."

Garrus buzzed in discomfort, patting a rag around his neck; "So what… is this another EA attack ship?"

Lee shook his head, "No… only an 'Official' Triple Alliance Warship would have that kind of tech and upkeep. That's not good; they normally use EA as a proxy. Although I will admit it makes me damned curious to know _why_ they're here."

Pressley stood up and looked at the technicians in the CIC. "Designate contact as Tango-1. Log everything and stand by to emergency transmit to the relay if things go south. This is the first new class of ship from the Triple Alliance we've ever seen, and Arcturus needs to know everything we learn here."

* * *

Captain Abraham Romanov leaned forward in his captain's chair, resting his elbows on his knees as they slowly ran through the pre-scheduled maneuvers for the _Jerusalum'_s shakedown run. Something felt off about this whole setup; and he had told the Admiral as much when he had been handed his orders.

_Why this system in particular? _He wondered absently, even as the OOD ran the stations through their paces; _granted, a silent run deep in Systems Alliance territory would make for a good motivator for the crew. Still… if something goes wrong, I'm responsible for the newest ship in the newest class of attack ships in the fleet being potentially damaged on her first cruise._

"Conn, Sensors; Contact bearing 0-9-0, positive attitude of 0-3-4, unknown distance… we've lost her sir. Designating unknown as Sierra-1." The voice of the Watch Officer in the Sensor room ten meters behind him jostled Romanov out of his musings.

Frowning, he spun his chair around and stood and walked over to the Sensor Room, leaning against the hatchway as the four enlisted men tried to reacquire the contact; the Watch Lieutenant watching over their work and helping them as best he could.

"Stealth ship then?" Romanov asked, raising an eyebrow even as the enlisted men continued their work; while the Lieutenant turned to face him.

"Yes sir, I'm running it through our database and matching it with the signatures of other Alliance and Council ships our Prowlers have encountered." The Lieutenant replied.

Romanov nodded, "Very well, Carry on Lieutenant." He stated, before walking back to his chair and turning to the Helm and Nav stations; "Helm, back us down to one fifth speed; and adjust our course to bearing 0-9-0, set positive attitude of 0-3-4." He ordered.

"Back down to one fifth speed, and adjust my course to bearing 0-9-0 with a positive attitude of 0-3-4; aye sir." The Helmsman replied.

Romanov scratched his beard and narrowed his eyes, _An Alliance or even a Council ship out here right as we begin our Shakedown run; that's too on the nose. _He thought to himself. "OOD, prepare the Torpedo's but do _not_ open the outer doors; XO, please inform Engineering that we are running dark."

"Aye sir." The two men chorused, and in short time; the bright lights dimmed to nothing, while the red running lights flickered on, bathing the bridge with a dull red lighting.

"Conn, Sensors; We have positively identified Sierra-1 as a _Normandy_ Class Stealth Frigate based on her Eezo output signature."

Romanov grimaced, but kept his cool as he said. "Understood Sensors; I want continual updates on possible positions from Sierra-1."

Turning his attention back to the viewscreen, Romanov thought; _Alright… time to see how well the _Jerusalum_ stacks up against the glorious _Normandy_ Class._

* * *

"Definitely a stealth ship ma'am," the sensor tech commented over his shoulder, "she micro-jumped into the shadow of the second Jovian, dumped her heat and charge and went dark."

Pressley frowned as he looked over the data. "We're barely able to keep track of them using 'Spirit-Hunt' tactics. I don't dare go full active scan, or put us in real-time passive range without knowing her own sensor capability."

Lee leaned on the consol railing, his Vac-rated armor _-clanking-_ as he did. "We can't risk planetfall while this flying space-dildo-of-doom is lurking around."

Garrus back-handed the side of Lee's head. "Watch the language where my daughter can hear."

Lee rubbed his head, and gave Garrus an annoyed look, "That's the whole ship." He pointed out.

"Yes," Jane didn't take her eyes off the holo-image, "but your point is taken. We need, _I_ need, to know who they are; and why they're here at this moment. Mr. Pressley, take us into Passive range."

"Aye ma'am." He saluted sharply. "Helm, set course 1-2-9 by positive 0-3-6. Put us into the Jovian's atmosphere so we can dump heat and charge, then rig for full silent."

"_Aye, sir."_ All humor was absent from the normally jocular Lieutenant as the ship heeled over and ascended towards their prey.

* * *

"Conn, Sensors; Sierra-1 has made a course change bearing… 1-2-9, same speed, angle is positive 0-3-6 degrees. They are reaching the edge of our passive scans sir, and I was only barely able to pick them up this time."

Romanov frowned, "Understood Sensors." He replied, standing in his chair and walking over to the Tactical Table; the holographic chart of the system glowing a dull red to preserve night vision when running dark.

"Sir, are you sure we should be tailing a _Normandy_ class ship like this? We're still in the middle of our Shakedown runs, and our weapons systems still aren't rated to fire unless for emergency use." The XO stated with an uncertain expression on his face.

Romanov just shook his head, "This is the perfect test for the ship, though the use of our weapons will be a last resort. The way they performed in the initial trial runs means that we'll just be tailing them; if they find us and shoot, we run for it." He replied.

He had no intention of getting into a shootout with a _Normandy_ Class Stealth Ship; and he had a hunch that it was the much vaunted _Normandy _herself. The calibrations on the Torpedos and Pulse Lasers were still being done, and they had yet to find a controlled environment to properly test to see if they had worked out all the bugs.

Hence Romanovs caution, he didn't know who he was dealing with; whether it be the clever and adaptable Shepard, or some cowboy of a Stealth ship captain eager to earn himself some glory. Even in the later case, Romanov was more inclined to run than fight.

Still… Command wanted a test against the only class of ships besides Carriers that could prove to be a threat against the Attack Boats; and he was unlikely to get a test as good as this one.

Romanov shared a knowing look with his XO, before saying; "Helm, Conn; course change towards bearing 2-0-5, positive attitude of 0-3-5, maintain speed, to be enacted in three minutes."

"Conn, Helm; bringing my course to bearing 2-0-5, positive attitude of 0-3-5, and maintaining my current speed. Aye sir." The Helmsman replied, quickly carrying out the captain's orders.

"Conn, Sensors; Sierra-1's inner core temperature appears to be rising. We're also getting some strange readings, likely from its internal Heat-Sinks. We're estimating a possible forced discharge with the next few hours." the Watch Officer reported.

Romanov frowned heavily, and stood from his seat; "Sensors, Conn; keep an eye on that, and let me know the moment it reaches critical temperatures. Helm, be prepared to back us off; I don't want to risk my shields and electronics getting fried from the discharge." He ordered.

"Aye sir." the Helmsman replied, before sharing a look with the Navigational Shipman; both men clearly uneasy at the moment.

Romanov folded his hands behind his back, and watched outwards through the viewscreen; _Alright Captain… your move._

* * *

"Conn, Sensors; aspect change in Tango-1. It happened just after we crossed into passive range."

Jane tensed up. "What bearing?"

"2-0-5 by plus 0-3-5 ma'am; almost perpendicular to our current course."

"_Damn_!" She thumped a fist on the railing. "How are our emissions?"

"We're bleeding heat like a stuck _pyjac_." Garrus paced between stations. "If we were a normal destroyer it'd be fine, but-"

"But we're a stealth ship glowing like a virgin in an Omega strip-club." Lee huffed.

"_Commander,"_ Greg Adams' voice came over the comms, _"Tali thinks she has a work-around for our heat problem, but it means we'll only have about two hours until the Capacitors reach critical density."_

Pressley glanced at his CO. "With respect ma'am, if we haven't chased off or destroyed Tango-1 in an hour, then under my authority as Captain of the Boat I'll scrub the mission."

There was a part of Jane that wanted to challenge him and say that the Op wasn't over until she said so, but she had to agree with his logic; if they had been made, then the mission was a bust anyway.

"Joker, you get all that?"

"_Aye, ma'am. As long as we can dump our current heat load and static charge, and don't make too many micro-jumps, I can give us a half-hour more than the Ell-Tee needs."_

She nodded, then looked at Pressley. "The Conn is yours."

* * *

Romanov watched the readings from the hologram.

_Damn it… Did I give myself away?_ He wondered, even as he watched the Normandy change course. If he had spooked them, then they were in trouble; because then he would have to hunt down the Normandy all over again in order to complete the trial runs of his ship, and determine her effectiveness against the best stealth ships the Alliance could put forward. _Hm…_

"OOD, match our course to Sierra-1's; but keep our distance from her." He ordered.

"Aye sir." the man replied, quickly ordering a series of course corrections; to match with the Stealth Frigate.

_What are you doing… _He wondered, narrowing his eyes. It was clear now that he was dealing with the _Normandy_ herself and not one of her sister ships. Now the question was, what to do about it?

His weapons systems calibrations were still… lacking, if he wanted to be generous about it; _this is why you stay in your _own_ waters when giving a ship a shakedown cruise._ He mentally ranted for what felt like the ninth time in the past few minutes.

After a few moments, a thought flashed in his mind; "Weps, Conn; replace the Torpedo in Tube Number Two with the decoy. And then open Tubes One and Two." He ordered.

It took a few minutes, and once the Weapons Officer reported the task was finished; Romanov ordered, "Fire the Decoy and the Torpedo, and keep them as close together as possible. I want them close enough that they will be read as one signature." He quickly inputted a set of coordinates, "Send them to this set of coordinates, then stop them dead in space."

He quickly walked over to the Tactical Map, and braced against the metal table; _Alright Commander, Your move…_

* * *

"She definitely knows our passive range, but I think we have hers as well." Pressley mused while looking at the holo. "Got just outside our real-time range and slipped behind the Nickel rock."

Jane nodded along, content to learn at Pressley's hand.

"Conn, Sensors! New contact bearing 1-8-1, negative 0-1-3 and opening. Looks like a slingshot course for the relay, sir."

Jane was ready to pounce until she saw her XO's pensive face. "You don't think it's them?"

He growled in frustration. "Monte Carlo odds on this one." He thumped his fist on the railing. "If we had a shuttle bay instead of your damned Doom-Buggy," Garrus snorted at that, "I could launch a spotter to confirm."

He chewed his lip for a moment. "No more pussy-footing. Weaps, drop two torps here on remote, then load another pair for ready-fire. Sensors," the deck thumped slightly as the launch tubes jettisoned a pair of Hyper-Relativistic Missiles, "go full active sweep. Helm lay in an intercept on our new contact. As soon as we lock on, we fire. If Tango-1 is still lurking, we can at least dissuade them from riding up our tail-pipe."

The CIC came alive with activity as the _Normandy_ prepared to go on the offensive.

* * *

Romanov cringed as the Sensors station lit up with the 'Pings' from the _Normandy_.

"Helm! Flank speed for the Relay! Weps, light the torpedo; and have the decoy ping the sucker!" He snapped, the crew hopping to their tasks with controlled speed and measured panic. He had not expected the Commander to decide to expose themselves like that; but realistically, it was probably the best course of action they could have taken, and one that the Captain had arrogantly believed they would not think of.

The _Normandy_ was far more maneuverable than the _Jerusalem_, and could run circles around her.

While the _Jeruselam_ could take far more punishment than her Stealth Frigate counterpart; Romanov was not willing to have the boat unnecessarily damaged on her shakedown run. He had gotten whatever data he could, now all he could do was hope the data from his weapons could reach him in time before they reached the relay.

_Idiot! A good game commander, but I will not be dissuaded so easily next time. _He vowed.

"Weps, Launch another Torpedo from Tube Five; and keep us apprised of the sensor data you get back from them."

* * *

The Cadre, as well as Tali and Eve were all gathered in the cramped briefing room. At the center was a wireframe 3-D model of Tango-1.

"I was able to piggy-back on their active scanning beam and copied as much system's data as I could. It's not a complete technical readout; but then _we_ don't keep our full schematics on any of the ship's computers, so it's unlikely they would either." Eve was in her Jane Junior persona as she gave her briefing on what she had learned about the ship.

Pressley nodded absently as he looked over the ship model and the information scrolling underneath. "That's quite alright. Look at this," he pointed to a particular detail, "their passive range is half again more than ours, but their active and point target ranges are less than half of ours."

"And if it was coupled with their existing pulse scanning system?" Garrus buzzed, teetering on the edge between respect and concern.

Eve looked at her father. "No real change. That just pushes their passive range out to the edge of their active range."

"That's still pretty significant. These were definitely designed to work alongside the Varrens." Jane leaned back in her chair. "Anything else of note?"

"Three things," Tali tapped on the table controls and focused on the nose, "one, she's a sniper; she has twice the forward ordnance as the _Normandy_, with another two torpedo launchers aft. This is probably related to the second thing." The model refocused on the engines. "All her propulsion and maneuvering systems are stern-mounted. While fast for a Frigate, she turns like a cruiser so she needs the additional weapons for when someone sneaks up on her."

"Like we did." Pressley groused. "If we hadn't needed to juke out of the stern torpedo's path, I'm confident we could have had her."

Jane nodded noncommittally. "And the third thing?"

Eve replaced the ship model with a system one. "We know the system they were deployed from last."

The hologram focused on the second and third planets in the system. The first of the two was a nickel/iron ball surrounded by orbital structures, though none were clearly seen in the hologram. The other was a garden world. A designator flashed underneath.

**System: Hoc **

**Fleet Command Center: Yeni Çatalhöyük **

**Planet: Virmire**

* * *

As I rode out the bumps in the ship, I couldn't help but wonder if that damned 'Red October' knockoff had really left the system. If not, then this was going to either be a really short trip, or a really long trip.

I looked at the rest of my team first, then over at Shiala, Kirrahe, Garrus, and Wrex.

I felt majorly outclassed, no pun intended of course, by all the heavy hitters on the shuttle. Even worse, the rest of 1-4-1 was dealing with the fallout regarding that new Triple Alliance Stealth Ship; which meant that Garrus and I were in charge of the mission.

As much as I didn't want it to be the case; it was really just me in charge, since Garrus had made it clear that he was only coming along for the sake of bulldozing through all the red tape that may get in our way.

It didn't help matters that I was _really_ not liking the feel of this mission; and I hadn't liked this mission canonically either.

"What's the call boss?" Colt asked, even as the _Normandy_ landed on the docks.

The others looked at me, and I nodded; "Alright, three rules here; stay close and don't go anywhere alone. Keep your weapons slung and at the ready but do not draw them; and if you see anything suspicious, then you call it out." I ordered.

"Got it, same procedure when going into gang territory then?" Garrus asked.

"The very same." I replied, even as the hanger door opened; "Alright, let's go!"

* * *

"You need to speak with Fai Dan." The colonist said to me, even as I resisted the urge to punch the man in the face. This was the fifth person I had spoken to, and the fifth person that had given me the same exact answer.

"Yes, so you have told me… and _told _me, Deputy Spectre Vakarian and Matron Shiala are already speaking with him. I want to talk with _you_, or some of your friends." I said; trying to tamp down my anger and unease at the moment.

It wouldn't be a good look to point my gun at a person simply because they were acting weird.

Still, it was clear that the Thorian was controlling these people; the problem was that I needed to get everyone else into thinking what I and my fellow Ghosts already knew. The only bright side was that the Thorian seemed to be making it pretty easy to tell that something was wrong; as I had already ordered Kirrahe to start discreetly taking scans of the people, something he readily agreed to.

Wrex for his part had gone with the Salarian, and seemed particularly unnerved as he watched the Civilians go about their daily lives with almost mechanical efficiency.

In any case, the Colonist seemed to grow incredibly nervous and pained, holding his head for a moment before saying; "I have work to do, I apologize." And with those words he took off towards one of the buildings.

I frowned heavily, even as I spotted Garrus and Shiala walking back towards me; and I shifted my Beowulf and walked up to meet with them, my team staying close to me. "What did the guy say?" I asked, knowing that they would understand.

"Whole bunch of nothing." Garrus buzzed impatiently.

Shiala snorted and looked around, "It was like we were talking with a VI almost; he either answered our questions to the letter, or he avoided them like the White Illness." She added.

I nodded, having expected as much; and looked around at the people walking around, "Guys… I can't be the only one who thinks something is off with this place at the moment."

Everyone turned outward, nodding their assent; "Boss… You know those slave collars Batarians use?" Colt asked, and I knew what he was trying to do.

"It's almost exactly like that." Archer replied before I could, "I've only ever seen implanted Slaves act like this."

Phil snorted, "Read about behavior like this during the Great Terror, before Yezhov and the NKVD threw out Stalin and replaced him with Trotskey." He stated.

Shiala and Garrus looked at each other before turning their attention back outward; "Yeah… those Exo-Geni PMC guys, they nearly kicked us out at gunpoint when I started asking Fai Dan more complex questions." Garrus said.

"Someones got something to hide, and they expressly told us to stay out of the Sewage tunnels." Shiala added.

"Well…" was all I could bring myself to say, even As I watched Wrex and Kirrahe bump into a young woman; a teenager almost, holding a toddler. I narrowed my eyes as Wrex quickly held up the poor girl by asking a few questions, while Kirrahe discreetly scanned both her and presumably her child; before the two quickly finished up, and walked towards us.

_She looks… familiar..._

Shaking my head, I said; "Let's hope Kirrahe and Wrex have got something for us, because I'll tell you what; I'm not letting this fade away."

* * *

"Ma'am… We think that Saren must have done something to the water supply." I said, even as I and the rest of the ground team stood in the conference room.

I had to get to the sewers and the Thorian, and this was the only way that I could reasonably think of; and in theory, my plan was fool proof. The colonists were acting strangely, and Saren had been last sighted hanging around the entrance to the sewers; so theoretically my logic and plan was sound.

But alas, reality was far from fiction; thankfully, the others were more than ready to back me up. "What makes you so sure Major?" Shepard asked, leaning back in her chair and narrowing her eyes.

"Mainly with how they're acting; whenever we tried to stop someone for a quick conversation they would immediately tell us to speak with the colony's leader Fai Dan. They all acted like…" I stopped, making it seem like I was searching for the right word; but in reality I had almost said NPC, which no one except the humans would get.

"Like they were robots, almost." Garrus said, nodding at my grateful look; "No matter what we said, they told us we needed to speak with Fai Dan."

Shepard looked between me and Garrus while narrowing her eyes, "And the man himself."

"A man who cares about his citizens, but a strange man nonetheless; he seemed to be in near constant pain, I could sense it for lack of a better term." Shiala stated.

"Took scans secretly, odd inconsistencies in colonists blood. Major probably correct, likely contamination of sorts in the water supply." Kirrahe added.

Shepard nodded slowly, then stood and walked to the window; looking out towards the colony. "Exo-Geni Corporation has sponsored this colony, and there are some labs several klicks away. We could take the Mako and question them about the condition of the colonists."

Garrus shook his head, "They're just as bad as Novaria, they refused to even run my Deputy Spectre Clearance; they clearly got something to hide, but we can't barge in and demand answers."

"Why not?" Eve suddenly asked, popping up beside Jane in her Turian form; a sight which still brought a slight smile to my face every time I saw it.

Then my mind fully processed her question, and I grimaced; "Because they have some kind of PMC helping guard the place; Some group called 'United Security', USEC for short. Mostly made up of former Army and Marine Vets, with the occasional Army Ranger, or Marine Raider thrown into the mix. All humans to boot." I said, shifting uncomfortably as I did so.

Another thing that was throwing Canon off the rails, although it wasn't something that really bothered me anymore; I had long since accepted that we had driven the train off the tracks and were plowing through some random corn fields.

"Hm… Major, you and I will be taking the initial landing team and investigating these tunnels leading to the water supply." She ordered, before turning to Eve; "sweetie, if you would be so kind as to inform Gunny Williams that we need a perimeter set around the Normandy; that would be great."

"Yes Ma'am!" Eve buzzed, quickly flicking away.

Shepard turned to the rest of us and nodded; "Alright… let's go see what these bastards are hiding."

* * *

Shepard slowly peeked around the corner, aiming the Beowulf down the tunnel.

She was vaguely aware of Lee over her shoulder assisting in clearing the hall, even as Colt, and Archer did the same behind them. Lee tapped Shepards shoulder, and she immediately started moving forward; sticking close to the wall, and internally cringing at the sound of water splashing as the group walked through it.

"_You think USEC will stop us from investigating this place?"_ She heard Colt whisper into their Comms.

She had to fight down a snort, as they quickly reached a juncture and Jane immediately noticed something; a puddle of blood. Holding up a fist, the group stopped; then she made a series of hand signals. The eight man team quickly cleared the juncture, before taking up positions at each of the tunnels.

As Jane signalled for Kirrahe to run a quick scan on the blood, she heard Shiala hiss back; _"They nearly shot us just for asking difficult questions. I think that question is a little hyperbolic."_

Jane shifted her rifle, and thought about the last scan Kirrahe had taken before coming back to the ship; a seventeen year old girl, and her two year old baby sister. Both of them had that same anomaly in their bloodstream and their brains.

"Exo-Geni is experimenting on innocent people and _children_, and USEC is protecting them." She hissed, even as she debated her decision.

"_How do you want to play this Uber, 'cause we aint in a position to take prisoners; and I'm not really eager to get shot." _Nomad asked, sticking to protecting their six.

Jane stewed it over for a moment, before making her decision; "Change in the rules of engagement on my Spectre authority; If they are USEC and armed, kill them." She ordered.

"_Understood."_

* * *

Tali wanted to swear like a Marine, but stayed her tongue as Fyodor was sitting on the floor next to her; drawing in the book that the Major's daughter had given him. With as much free time as she had at the moment, she was just struggling to find something to do; hence why she was trying to crack the navigation course that Eve had managed to snag from the fleeing Stealth Destroyer.

The rest of her fellow Quarians, with the exception of the Marines, were working on the Reactor; all the Normandy's Marines and the rest of 1-4-1 were working perimeter security.

Tali frowned as she thought about what the Major had said about the colonists; mind control… who would do something like that? More importantly, how would they do something like that.

"Hey Tali, we could use some help here on the Reactor; San thinks he's found the leak in the coolant flow." Jaali shouted, startling Tali out of her thoughts.

Tali looked down at Fyodor, who was still doodling in his book; "You gonna be good here for a few minutes kiddo?" She asked.

"I'll be fine auntie." Fyodor replied, smiling widely behind his visor.

Tali nodded, and quickly pulled down her Seemas and put on her own visor before flipping the cloak like hood up; still frustrated that she needed to wear her damned suit for another month at least.

Some of that frustration waned as she entered the still sweltering engineering compartment and her suit's environmental control kicked in full force. Feeling the wind on her face was fabulous, but sweating like an Asari stripper in an Enkindler's Service was not.

"Hey guys, Jaali said that San found the leak?" She called out as she walked inside, noting that none of the human engineering crew except Chief Adams were currently on duty.

Jaali looked up from where she was helping the Chief. "Oh yeah! But be sure to tease him; he actually said, 'I found where Eve's been leaking'!"

Tali gave a nervous chuckle; it was still very strange to her to have someone be friendly towards, much less be infatuated with an AI. _Father would blow a seal if he knew who I was associating with,_ she mused as she went into the cryo-plant. Still, it felt like an insignificant cost to see her people free of their suits.

She passed through the hatch and wound her way through the pipes and pumps until she found San. "So, I hear you've figured out what's_ making Eve wet_?" She added a little swish to her hips to sell the tease.

San gave a choking noise as he turned around. "It was a stupid slip of the tongue; nothing more!"

"You want to say that again San Dearest?" Tali had to fight down a laugh and a nervous shudder, while San yelped; and turned around to see Eve standing behind him in her Turian form, which was the one she tended to resort to when she was mad.

"I," he sputtered for a moment, "I meant you _are_ the ship, so if something happens to the ship it's happening to you."

"Oh? And what does that say about you? Putting your hands all over me: worming your way into my deepest depths?" Eve leaned teasingly towards the Quarian youth.

Tali decided to take pity on the younger pilgrim and said, "As the Major says, when you want to get out of your grave; you first put down the shovel." Even as Col, Leah, and Lia all laughed from where they stood. "In any case, let's get this fixed; I don't want to be dealing with this in case that 'Jerusalem' ship comes back around." She ordered, planting her fists on her hips as San rushed to start repairs; the other Quarians doing so reluctantly, as they had been enjoying the show.

Eve eventually stopped flustering San and flickered over to Tali. "Have you had any luck in back-tracking the _Jerusalem_?"

Tali shook her head, "No, the damned thing is elusive to say the least; I'd say that where the _Normandy_ beats her in maneuverability, the _Jerusalem_ is the undisputed king of speed and stealth. _Kheelah_, as much as Pressley likes to claim otherwise; that _Bosh'tet_ is _fast_, even if she's like a sleepy Elcor when it comes to maneuvering."

Col popped up from the network of pipes, even as he handed San a wrench; "So what's she look like, this _Jerusalem_? You can tell a lot about certain peoples from looking at their ships; and this is the first new one we've seen from our enemies." He pointed out.

Tali huffed. "Absolutely nothing like the Varren, which as far as I can tell was made by the same people." She shuffled her feet and nervously flexed her hands. "It's strange though; the _Varren _and the _Jerusalem _were both made by humans, and I was on the bridge when we first saw the _Varren_. The Ghosts and that repair team all recognized it, I'm sure of it; and the Major said the _Jerusalem_ reminded him of something else he'd seen once, but none of the rest of the crew seemed to. I wonder what it is about the Ghosts..."

She trailed off as Eve's hologram lost some of it's detail; a sign she'd learned that the AI was distressed about something. She also saw San freeze for a split second; before he went back to work. Tali narrowed her eyes, but said nothing as none of the other Quarians noticed the distress from the AI nor their fellow Quarian.

"Well we've seen what the Varren looks like; you guys have a schematic of the _Jerusalem_?" Jaali asked as she walked up.

Tali just shrugged and pulled up the hologram of the 'Stealth Destroyer' with her omnitool. "A basic layout and her internal readouts from when Eve copied her logs. As Eve said; not a technical readout." She chuffed a laugh. "In a way, this is better. It's not what the engineers and shipwrights _say_ the ship is and can do; it's what it actually does."

As she talked them through it, Tali couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. She ignored it, as whatever was happening groundside wouldn't be a concern to them; since they were safe and sound aboard the ship.

* * *

Col'Seenar furiously rubbed his eyes as he sat near the now cooling reactor.

He had never felt so stressed and yet so _useless_ in his entire life; and the fact of the matter was that he was. He was useless at the moment, and he was essentially back to square one regarding his pilgrimage; discounting the pay and the cure of course, as the Commander and Major had made sure they were all given pay for their work.

The cure alone threw all his concepts of what to find on his pilgrimage out the proverbial airlock. A gift was meant to support the Flotilla in some way; like medicine or a new, to the fleet at least, ship. With the cure, so many medicines were now obsolete, and he'd need to leave the Normandy to find a ship to bring back, but the Normandy didn't seem to stop anywhere he could reasonably find a ship to salvage or buy on the cheap. Even the simple prospect of bringing back arms and armor was a weak gesture, since aside from information, these _Ghosts_ just seemed to give things out like rations.

_Oh, you need armor? Here's a new Hardsuit._

_Oh, you need a gun? Here's a pistol that laughs at the latest K-Barriers._

_Oh, you're prone to getting sick? Here's the cure to being born a Quarian._

By the Ancestors, _everyone_ was learning something that could be considered an excellent Pilgrimage gift under normal circumstances. Jaali seemed to have an almost supernatural understanding when it came to the Stealth Systems on the Normandy; able to baby the persnickety things into giving as much power as possible while still keeping the heat and discharge output low.

She'd come up with equations able to quantify just how much and how long engines could take under differing circumstances and dozens of other conditions that would be critical to successful infiltration.

Leah was learning all of the Major's recipes and the recipes of the rest of the Galley's staff; as once the cure went to the rest of the fleet, there would be a serious need for cooks to teach people how to make food and have healthy diets.

Lia… while she had privately admitted to not wanting to complete her pilgrimage since it would mean Fyodor would be taken from her; she had been studying under Doctor Chakwas about the anatomy of every single sentient species, and was well on her way to becoming either a nurse or a doctor.

San, even discounting his... 'relationship' with Eve; was still incredibly skilled with AI coding and had been instrumental in developing the Mobile Emitters, allowing Eve to leave the ship and interact in the real world. Allow anyone to be whatever species they would like to be, under certain circumstances and conditions of course.

Tali was certainly shaping up to be a fierce soldier and warrior, to the point that Col thought it likely that she would be like Kal and Fon and not complete her pilgrimage and instead opt to join the Fleet Marine Raiders.

And what about him?

He was a capable enough mechanic, but he was a Quarian; that was like saying a Hanar was a passable swimmer. He didn't really have the temperament for combat, and he'd certainly seen more of that in the last year than he ever imagined he'd see in a lifetime.

He didn't want to be 'remembered among the _Ancestors_' as some pilgrims got it into their heads to be. He just wanted to be useful to his people; to take his place among them. But the longer he stayed on this ship, no matter how marvelous it was, the further he became from that goal.

"_I have to leave…" _He murmured in _Kheelish_, as he realized what it was that was stopping his pilgrimage in its tracks. "I have to leave." He repeated, a little louder this time and with more confidence as he began putting the pieces together in his head.

While he would still be at square one once he left the ship, he would still have _many_ options available to him; he could go out to the rest of the Alliance, perhaps explore the Asari Republics, or even go out into the Terminus and steal a ship which he could then captain.

He nodded to himself, vowing to bring it up to the command staff the next time they had a meeting, but first; he needed to let his friends know as well.

* * *

Archer had taken point now, though Jane made sure to follow close behind her; staying close to the walls as they moved. The Ghosts had taken out their secondary Sub-Machine Guns; which they called 'MP5SD's, and were apparently integrally suppressed as well meaning they were much quieter.

Kirrahe had taken the blood sample, and had told everyone that it was a human males; middle aged approximately and had a greater amount of the 'infection', for lack of a better term, than the other colonists. Kirrahe had also found bits of brain matter and very minute particles of metal typically found in ammo blocks.

Shepard stood by her decision now; as it was clear USEC or Exo-Geni scientists had executed one of the colonists, or at the very least allowed someone to commit suicide or left them to die in these tunnels.

As they moved through the tunnel, they came up to another juncture; Archer quickly shifting her MP5 into a left handed grip. _"Contact, Two USEC's." _She hissed.

_PFT!PFT!_

Both Contractors dropped to the ground, holes in their heads, even as the squad moved forward; covering each of the tunnels as they moved. _"Contacts down, Dead Check."_

_PFT!PFT!_

Both men twitched, but did nothing else as Archer sent another round into each of their heads. Shepard normally would have been a little unnerved by the almost casual manner with which the Ghost carried it out; but at the moment, all Jane could think of was that poor teenager and her toddling sister.

These people had done nothing even as their employers experimented on children, _children_, and would likely kill them just for being down here.

If they discovered Eve…

"_Moving up the tunnel they came from."_ Nomad hissed, and Colt stepped up behind his fellow Ghost; tapping his shoulder even as the rest of the team made sure to spread out while checking every corner, hoval, and side tunnel.

Soon, they reached a small alcove, while the tunnel itself had a slight bend to it; blocking Jane and the rest from seeing what was beyond it. Jane grimaced as her NVG's started to flicker slightly, and she whispered; "NVG's on the fritz, shutting them off."

"_Copy that, checking the alcove." _Nomad replied, even as Phil stepped up next to her and ran his tacpad scanner function over it.

He tapped a few keys, and tapped Jane's shoulder, even as Nomad said; _"Dead Check."_

_PFT!_

Jane flipped the NVG's down again, and blinked as she took in what she could now see; "CONTACT!" She screamed.

_BOOM!_

Nomad flinched back into the alcove as streaks of light flashed right by his head; the rest of the team pressing themselves against the walls of the tunnels. _"USEC! At least three contacts down the tunnel!" _He screamed.

"_Contact Rear!"_ Shiala bellowed, as she and Wrex began firing down the hall; adding their own ME based weapons into the mix.

"They've pincered us! We need to push through and get to the Main Water Pumps!" Jane shouted, remembering that that was where Eve had detected a large cluster of human's and an unknown alien signature.

"_Uber! The Rear contacts are the ones Archer dropped!"_ Shiala shouted, as the gunshots were deafening at this point; the tunnels amplifying the gunfire and the echo's.

"_Shit! Frag Out!"_ Nomad bellowed, even as the gunfire chipped away at the alcove he was trapped inside of; even as he remained sandwiched between the crossfire from his Team, Shepard, and the USEC Contractors.

There were some curses, and the gunfire immediately lessened as the grenade landed in the main group's midst; before the grenade went off.

_Crack!WHUMP!_

Jane cringed as the restrictive chambers amplified the shockwave from the grenade; jarring her for a second, before she rallied and quickly pushed up the tunnel on the right side while Phil kept pace with her on the left, holding down on the trigger of his LMG.

The USEC troopers seemed to fall back, though they kept up the volley of fire.

"Battlemaster! Shield the front! Matron you take our six!" Shepard bellowed, quickly headshotting one of the USEC troopers; dropping the man instantly.

"_Frag out!"_ Nomad shouted again behind her.

He may have been a rather scrawny man, but Shepard swore up and down that he must have been a Baseball Pitcher or an American Football Quarterback in a past life; because his frag went flying down the tunnel and smacked one of the retreating USEC troopers right in the face.

_Crack!WHUMP!_

Jane nearly staggered again at the pounding assault on her head; but thankfully Wrex's biotic shield helped mitigate the effect of the shockwave this time. "Push forward!" Jane snapped.

"_Hostiles on our six are down!"_ Garrus shouted, even as Nomad and Archer took point and ran down the tunnel; keeping their weapons pointed outward.

"Keep Pushing them! Don't let them entrance themselves!" Jane shouted.

Even though they were making good progress, Jane felt a certain pall of dread suddenly overcome her. She just hoped the _Normandy_ and the rest of the Colonists were alright.

* * *

Eve was thinking.

This in itself was not unusual, as despite how much she pretended or appeared otherwise, she was an AI; the first _human_ AI to boot, as much as she liked appearing as a Turian around her father, and as a Quarian around San.

No, what was unusual for her was _what_ she was currently thinking about.

As much as she teased San, her mind was currently dissecting the one transmission she had managed to intercept from the _Jerusalem_; a message that she had only just now managed to decrypt. _How is it that the Imam and Admiral Gar'Dawar can stomach working together? More importantly, why do they want to off Balak? _She wondered. It made no sense to her, as the former Batarian Spectre was a useful ally to the Pirate Admiral and the mysterious leader of the Triple Alliance.

_Perhaps he has become a liability, if that's the case; perhaps mom can flip him and get him to spill the beans in exchange for his life._ She mused.

Eve was jolted from her musings by the sudden alarm from the security detail. _"Taking fire! Taking fire!"_ She refocused on the perimeter and saw the colonists rushing towards the _Normandy,_ obviously fleeing whatever-

"_Rocket!"_

-Whoosh-**Boom**-

She had not calculated at all that one of the colonists would fire a rocket at her! The thermobaric warhead did little more than mar her paint, but the brazen unreasoning violence of it shook her.

The Marine detail under Williams, Alenko and Reegar were not so shaken. _"Homeguard to all units, weapons free!"_

Eve was heartened by Ashley's firm voice, right up until the Marines began returning fire on the colonists. She watched in horror as the Marines opened fire on the Civilians and the USEC PMC's following behind them; and Eve found she couldn't keep her peace.

Immediately opening a link to the Marines; she screamed, "STOP! STOP! What are you doing! They're unarmed!" even as she watched the USEC Troopers begin firing at both the Marines and the Civilians. She was having a very difficult time reconciling the datasets she was dealing with: on one side, the Marines were in danger and they were defending the ship, but on the other side were the largely unarmed and unshielded civilians rushing headlong into the disciplined and deadly hail of marine fire.

She had to do something. She saw one family moving steadily forward, the parents using their willing children as living shields. There were no words in all the languages she had access to, to describe the wrongness of what was happening. She _had_ to do something.

So she did.

_-Commandline override Two-Baker-Five: Enable GUARDIAN System for remote Operations-_

Half a dozen hatches across the _Normandy_ opened, revealing the one meter aperture Infra-Red Laser batteries normally reserved for anti-missile defense and close quarters ship-to-ship combat.

"All personnel, standby for GUARDIAN engagement."

The crew and Marines all flinched and looked around in a panic at the announcement over the ship's PA system, though the mindless press of flesh paid no heed.

Eve hesitated for zero point three seconds. Now more than ever, she desperately wanted her mommy and daddy.

"GUARDIAN system enabled. Opening fire."

Concrete and steel were flash boiled into a three meter wide, one and a half meter deep trench around the ship. A dozen colonists and PMCs were caught in the onslaught and simply _evaporated_ in a blast of superheated steam, including the parents she had observed. The daughters ran uncaring towards the Marine line, or rather the older sister ran as the younger one was still a toddler and had to be carried; shrieking unintelligibly or perhaps intelligibly as there seemed to be actual syntax involved. The security detail intercepted them before they could board; but they continued to struggle to try and get through.

Beyond the molten trench was a different nightmare, as the remnants of the colonists bunched up and began throwing themselves on the artificial lava to try and form a bridge. With the attack now confined to one narrow channel, the Marines renewed their defense while picking off the odd PMC or armed civilian.

The effect was no less horrific.

The unarmed civilians kept charging forward _through_ the boiling rock; literally burning to death just from getting close to the line Eve had carved into the Ground. It was a distressing thought that those shot by the Marines were the lucky ones. In less than two minutes, the colonists and PMCs were all spent; either immolated by the moat, or gunned down by the defenders.

There were no cheers at the victory; no patting on the back and laughing about close calls, nor jeers towards the defeated foe. There was no honor or glory to be found in this fight; only the horror of war.

* * *

It had been a sort of back and forth battle of attrition that Jane had wanted to avoid at all costs.

Thankfully, the Ghosts, Garrus, Kirrahe, Wrex, and Shiala had all been more than up to the task; each of them taking out a number of USEC troopers with every push they made through all the little ambushes and entrenchments the PMC's had set up. Exo-Geni _really_ must have wanted whatever was kept down here a secret; because not even the Ghosts could sneak past the defenses thanks to Thermal optics and motion sensors.

Jane fired down the hall, taking out another USEC trooper; before a machine gun emplacement started firing on her, forcing the Commander behind some rocks.

"_Throwing Incendiary!"_ Colt bellowed, clearly fed up with the constant delays; if the fact that he was resorting to using his treasured incendiaries was any indication.

_WHUMP!_

The USEC Troopers all began screaming, popping out of cover and frantically rolling around in the water to try and put out the synthetic flames that were eating away at their flesh. The Ghosts quickly pressed forward, even as Jane kept up a continuous stream of gunfire from her own Beowulf; the four Army Soldiers quickly putting the USEC troopers out of their misery with quick and efficient headshots.

"_Tango's down, pushing forward!"_ Nomad shouted, into the Comms.

Jane moved fast, easily keeping up with the fast pace the Ghosts had set with their usual blitz tactics to take the enemy off guard with lightning fast attacks; and to deny them the opportunity to set up more defenses as they retreated.

"Keep pushing them, we're almost there." Jane hissed into her mic.

"_Now we get to see what these Pyjaks are hiding." _Wrex huffed angrily, blasting his shotgun at one of the USEC troopers that had lagged behind.

It was only another two minutes of half jogging through the water and sewage filled tunnels before they reached the entrance to the Main Water Pump room. They began to enter the room, or rather they tried to; but the USEC troopers began just spraying the entrance with near constant gunfire, forcing the 1-4-1 Operators into cover.

"Shit! They've entrenched!" Shepard spat angrily, even as the curtain of orange tracers chipped away at the walls of the main entrance. "Matron, any luck raising the rest of 1-4-1 or the Marines?!"

"_Negative! Still too much interference from both the ground and from the artificial jammer!" _The Asari replied, pressing herself against the wall as much as she could.

"_Dammit! We can't stay here!"_ Nomad shouted, jerking his head back as one tracer zipped too close to his head for the Ghosts liking. _"Popping snake cam!"_

The Ghost Major immediately dug into his combat pouch, and withdrew a tiny cable; quickly plugging it into his helmet and snaking it around the corner, trying his best to ignore the tracer fire. _"What the fuck… We got ten USEC Troopers, a large number of scientists, an IAA Agent, and some kind of giant plant!" _He reported, quickly marking the USEC troopers as Red, the IAA Agent as Yellow, the Scientists as Green, and presumably the Giant Plant Thing as Blue.

By this point, Jane had had enough of USEC and Exo-Geni; and her response to Lee's comments made it known to everyone. "Redesignate Scientists as Hostiles, I want the IAA agent taken alive if possible; but kill them otherwise." She hissed, even as she dug out a flashbang. "Everyone get your flashbangs and gas grenades, we're taking these fuckers out"

The others quickly complied, sensing that Shepard was at her wits end.

"Flash out!" Nomad shouted, even as he and the Ghosts tossed their flashbangs into the room.

"Smoke out!" Jane replied, even as Wrex, Garrus, Kirrahe, and Shiala followed her example.

_CRACK!CRA!CRA!CRACK!_

The four flashbangs went off within milliseconds of each other; and the nine operators quickly pushed into the main room, the USEC troopers struggling to reorient themselves as they were still blind and deaf. Many of them simply resorted to spraying their weapons everywhere they could as a desperate last resort to try and take one of the 1-4-1 operators out with them; and regrettably, it somewhat worked.

Shiala bellowed in pain, staggering as a ricochet smacked through her shields and buried itself into her hip; sending the Matron to the ground, even as Nomad put a bullet into the USEC Troopers brain.

Jane processed all of this in the span of a few seconds; before the Scientists all seemed to scream and charge towards her and the other operators, focusing on the wounded Shiala in particular even as Kirrahe and Archer tried to help her.

"Shit!" She screamed as one of the scientists threw a scalpel at her; even as some tried to grab rifles from the USEC troopers. The only exception was the IAA Agent, an Indian Woman with black hair; wearing the Olive uniform tunic, bloused blue pants, jackboots, the blue peaked cap, and the brown leather trench coat nearly all IAA agents wore when not in plainclothes.

She in contrast didn't draw her weapon, and instead tried to run into what appeared to be an escape tunnel. _Like that's happening!_ "Scientists are Red! Cleared hot!" Jane bellowed, and quickly aimed and fired.

_Crack!Crack!_

The IAA agent cursed and fell to the ground, holding her leg as it spewed blood with one hand and holding her shoulder with the other; soaking into her uniform. But she was downed and unarmed, clearly not a threat to them anymore; and so Jane turned her fire onto the scientists. Had they been anyone else, she might have been remorseful over it; in fact she was somewhat, but that didn't change her thoughts on the matter.

The thoughts of the poor girl and her baby sister were still running through Jane's mind as she fired into the crowd of scientists.

It didn't take long before all of them lay dead on the ground; and even as the Ghosts began dead checking them while Kirrahe and Wrex tended to Shiala, Jane stormed up to the IAA agent with Garrus close behind.

Said IAA agent was trying to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood; but Jane put a stop to that by stomping down on the Indian Woman's wounded leg. The IAA agent howled in pain, even as Jane shouted; "COLT! ARCHER! Get over here and search this bitch and bind her wound!"

She and Garrus stepped back, even as the two Ghosts stormed up to the woman; Archer ripping off the Agents belt and pulling off her blouse leaving her in her thin tank top which was also removed, while Colt quickly pulled off the Jackboots and her Pants, tearing off one of the pant legs and binding her wound rather than using medigel.

The IAA Agent glared hatefully up at them, ignoring the fact that she was now only dressed in her panties and bra; even as Colt and Archer used her uniform to bind her injuries. Jane just glared back, the woman didn't deserve her modesty or medigel to numb her pain; considering the privacy, modesty, and pain she had deprived from and inflicted on the rest of the colony.

Plus, it prevented her from making a run for it; as she wouldn't get far dressed as she currently was.

Soon, the rest of 1-4-1 gathered up around the downed IAA agent; with the exception of Kirrahe and Shiala, the latter of whom was still on the ground unable to support herself but still made sure to prop herself against the wall and watch the tunnels for any sign of movement.

Kirrahe was already hacking into their database, pulling all the data he could.

Through all of that, everyone kept casting nervous glances at the giant plant creature; which was contained in a giant plexi-glass tube, though it now seemed to be making efforts to break out of said tube.

Nomad quickly searched through the Agents Trenchcoat and pulled out her ID tags. "International Affairs Agency Simulated First Lieutenant Maya Brooks." He sneered, handing the tags to Shepard; who read them over as well.

"Hm… why am I not surprised that the IAA is experimenting on our own people; or are you acting under your own initiative." Jane asked coldly. Brooks remained silent, even as Colt and Archer finished their search; which wasn't much considering the fact that she only had on her underwear.

Nomad silently began to step on her shoulder wound, and the woman hissed angrily and in pain; "I'll never tell…"

The Ghost shared a look with the Spectre, before both shared a nod; "We can interrogate her back on the ship. Right now we need to get out of here, and destroy this… plant thing. Whatever it is, Exo-Geni was using it for mind control; we can't let it be used for anything else." Shepard stated, before looking over at Kirrahe; "You take care of the jamming?" She asked.

"Negative. Did next best thing. Used this to connect with _Normandy._ Bad news. The colonists and USEC were being controlled and rushed the ship with weapons." The Salarian paused and looked distressed for a moment, "Eve forced to use Guarians to keep them back. Marines and the rest of the task force opened fire. It is very likely everyone is dead."

There was stunned silence for a long moment, before everyone processed everything Kirrahe just said. Jane and August shared a look, before the beast in the tank began roaring and smashing some tentacle-like vines against the sides of its container; cracking the glass in the process.

"Uh guys… I think it's best if we run." August said nervously.

"Agreed! Move!"

* * *

They ran for what felt like hours, but in reality it was probably only for a few minutes. "Alright… let's break for a moment." Shiala gasped, still holding her hip; even as the screams of the Plant Beast faded away.

Wrex quickly set her down onto the ground, while Phil stayed close to Brooks; the indian woman still looking quite murderous and dangerous in-spite of the fact that she was only wearing her underwear. Jane _really _did not like that woman, and was wishing more and more to just shoot her.

_She should die! She inflicted far more suffering on those colonists!_ A voice in her head screamed, and Shepard found herself glaring at Brooks; before she shook her head, mumbling _"Bosh'tet Piz'da."_

Jane blinked in confusion, then had to bite down another round of cursing as she realized that she had devolved into _Kheelish_ again; and quickly checked to make sure no one else had noticed her little slip up. No one had except August, who simply flashed her a look of concern; before turning his attention back down the tunnel.

Jane huffed and stood, "Alright… let's get moving; the entire colony except the Exo-Geni labs may be dead, but I want to be off this planet and launching missiles at this damned thing as soon as possible." She grumbled.

"Perhaps so Commander." Brooks piped up behind her, and Jane had to clamp down on her hand to stop herself from punching the smug Brit. "In any case… tah-tah!"

_Shink!_

Phil gasped and Jane spun around to see a Balislong buried into his side; before a furious punch staggered her backwards, and Brooks quickly kicked Kirrahe back with her good leg while sending a furious slash at Archer. Then she threw her knife at Nomad, who dodged out of the way and tried to tackle the Agent; who nimbly dodged with a smirk, "Almost had my ass there-" She started to snidely comment while running down the hall, before Jane punched her in the face; giving the woman a nasty black eye and knocking her out for a few moments.

All of this occurred in the span of a few seconds, as everyone struggled to process what had just happened; before Nomad, in one of the _very _few times Jane had ever seen it happen personally, finally lost his temper.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" He bellowed, storming up to Archer and Colt; both of whom immediately backed up with wide eyes. "Phil! Are you okay?!" He asked, casting a glance over at the Russian.

"I'll… I will live." The Ghost replied, still sounding pained as he quickly applied medigel to his wound.

His concern for his fellow Ghost sated for the moment, Nomad's wrath returned in full; "You two searched her right!? Where in the fuck did that knife come from!?" He snarled, before holding up a hand; "Don't answer, I think we can all guess."

Slinging his weapon, the Major walked over to the now conscious but still dazed Brooks; and flipped her onto her face and cuffed her hands behind her back; then he drew his K-bar and cut off her bra and panties, before turning to Archer and Colt. "Search. Her. Again, and make sure she really doesn't have anything else hidden inside her. I don't care if you have to reach all the way up both holes and use her mouth like a puppet!" He snarled, "That's a goddamned rookie mistake, and we will talk about this when everything's been all sorted!"

* * *

They came out of the tunnels to be met with the sickly-sweet smell of burnt flesh. No one made a sound as they trudged back to the column of smoke that marked their landing site. Mercifully, the wind shifted and blew the miasma away from the ground team and the _Normandy,_ though it now exposed the grizzly scene.

No one had much time to dwell on the sight as Aethyta and Wrex stepped up in unison. With a sweeping motion of their arms, they biotically created a wave of artificial lava and buried the charnel pile. The result created a still smoldering, but no longer glowing-hot ditch.

The two ancients maintained their hold on the lava to keep the path open. "Let's get out of here before anything _else_ happens." Wrex growled over his shoulder.

Nomad, Archer, and Colt just brushed past Jane; all three of them refused to look at the carnage, even as Archer and Colt carried Brooks between them. Colt had taken the other pant leg of the Agents uniform and pulled it over her head so she wouldn't see anything; but that didn't deter the IAA agent from growling and flailing and otherwise trying to break free.

It was certainly a scene to behold, and despite their exhausted and mentally drained state; everyone flinched upon seeing the Ghosts carrying a bound, gagged, furiously snarling and struggling, and naked woman up the loading ramp.

Phil was being supported by Garrus, the only one big enough besides Wrex able to handle the Giant Russians bulk, and the two also ignored the carnage beyond giving it a bewildered look; before Garrus supported Phil to the medbay.

Kirrahe did the same with Shiala, and like all the rest they ignored the death surrounding them the best they could.

Jane was the only one that stayed outside once Wrex had gone in with Aethyta; along with the Marines, both Quarian and Human that is. Jane sighed as memories of Elysium sprang to the forefront of her mind; and she heard the crunching sound of footsteps drawing closer.

Turning, she saw Staff Lieutenant Alenko, Gunny Williams, and Sergeant Reegar walking towards her. All three had a hollow look in their eyes, and she could see that Williams was crying lightly.

"Any survivors?" She asked. It technically wasn't supposed to be her first question, but right now protocol be damned she wanted some answers.

Alenko opened and closed his mouth for a moment, then looked down; while Williams just kept crying. It was Sergeant Reegar who answered after a long moment; "Two… A Seventeen year old girl, and her one and a half year old little sister." He said. "Not counting the Scientists in the Exo-Geni lab… And that naked woman the Ghosts were carrying."

Jane growled, "They won't be alive for long; we're destroying this damned place."

* * *

Romanov did what he had always done throughout his life; watched carefully but without comment as the _Normandy _entered high orbit. He had been ordered to return and tail the ship until it left the system, and then resume her shakedown runs once the _Normandy _had left the system and land Wolf teams to the surface; but something told the experienced Navy Captain that he wouldn't have to worry about that for long.

He frowned heavily as the Sensors officer reported the _Normandy_ launching her Torpedoes into the colony itself, along with the Exo-Geni labs, wiping the area's out. With that completed, the Stealth Frigate exited orbit, and engaged her stealth systems as she went for the relay.

Romanov briefly considered the idea that it was a feint to draw the _Jerusalem _out; but he quickly dismissed it, as they had been still groundside when Romanov and his ship had reentered the system.

He just sighed, and made sure the camera recordings and the sensor readouts were confiscated and put into his classified safe in his quarters. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't pursue his rival; he had to find out what had happened planetside.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad.

But even then, Abraham Romanov knew that it was nothing more than wishful thinking.

* * *

**A/N: So… quite the chapter huh guys?**

**Here, the Ghosts reliance on Canon again bites them in the ass; as now the Thorian itself was being controlled directly as opposed to being left mostly to its own devices. Agent Brooks makes her appearance, and this time she's an actual Government Agent as opposed to being a spy for Cerberus.**

**But some things never change, no matter the context and circumstances.**

**I'll be honest, I **_**loved**_** writing the back and forth between the **_**Jerusalem**_** and the **_**Normandy**_**; I actually broke out my copy of 'Tom Clancy: SSN' so I could get the dialogue and the feel of it right. **

**Now then, Col… This decision is a recent one; but one that makes sense, as he has **_**one**_** appearance and it's in the Movie Night side-story. So he's doing nothing on the Normandy, and his leaving actually does have an impact because it becomes important later.**

**The teenager and her little sister are someone significant, which you've probably guessed; but you'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out who they are.**

**The Confrontation between 1-4-1 and USEC (which is another reference) was something that was rather difficult to write; mainly because we weren't sure **_**how**_** to write it, but I think it turned out alright by the end of it.**

**As for Eve… Well you're up for that one Ian.**

**Ian A/N: Eve is a tremendously powerful AI, learning at the hands of the finest the galaxy offers, and as of this chapter less than a year old. She isn't Rommy from 'Andromeda', and it was important to show that. **

**She has been an interesting character to evolve as we have gone along, and I hope everyone can enjoy her wonder at the universe, as well as sympathize with the terrible choices she has been forced to make.**

**Her road isn't going to get any smoother, so stay tuned, dear readers.**

**Pilot: Right then, link to my discord is on my profile; as is my Hearts of Iron 4-Mass Effect Writing challenge to any that wish to take it on.**

**Please leave a review and let us know what you think, the feedback helps us immensely.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	32. Oriana

As much as she didn't want to, Jane knew that she had to wait to speak to Eve.

She trusted her husband to take care of things, and as such, she found herself walking into the medbay; finding Chakwas walking out of the recovery and surgery rooms with a loud sigh. Taking a breath, Jane said, "Doc."

Chakwas blinked, then sighed and rubbed her eyes; "Commander, let me have some coffee first before we begin." She said, preempting any of Jane's questions.

Jane just nodded and stood there while Chakwas quickly walked over to her desk and popped open a drawer. Shepard blinked in surprise as she realized that Chakwas had a coffee machine stuffed into her desk; _So that's where she's been getting her supply from._ She thought with a hint of jealousy and annoyance.

Still, no sense crying over spilled milk, and as Chakwas gulped down a quarter of her drink Jane asked, "Alright, how is everyone Doc?"

"Phil will be up and about in a few days, his armor mostly stopped the blade from doing too much damage. Shiala will be out for a couple of weeks until her hip has healed. Ms. Brooks injuries have been treated, but per yours and the Majors orders I have not given her pain meds." She gave Jane a disapproving look at that, but continued onwards regardless. "As for Ms. Oriana Irwin and her little sister Freya, both had some minor burns due to proximity to the Guardian Lasers firing; and some bruising thanks to the Marines restraining them, physically they are fine."

Jane could hear the silent 'But', and said; "But mentally…"

Chakwas grimaced and took another swig of her coffee; "They need a psychologist most likely, or rather Oriana does; as Ms. Freya is only two, and likely has not been able to process what happened to their parents. She keeps asking for them, and Oriana has been trying her best to keep her distracted." Then the doctor reached forward and pulled up a data slate; "I've purged the organisms controlling them from their systems; but I did come across something interesting."

She handed it to Jane, and the Commander raised an eyebrow as she read out the data; "Well first things first, one of them is adopted." She noted, even as she read the differences in the twos Genes; then she froze as she quickly realized something, and reread the data. "Are you serious?" She finally asked.

"Very." Was all the Doctor said, before she stood; "I'm going to get some food, would you mind talking with the two of them while I'm gone?" She asked.

"Sure… should I tell her?" Jane asked uncertainly.

"...I don't know, but I think perhaps it's best you tell her so as to avoid problems later in life." Chakwas admitted, before turning and walking away to the mess hall; leaving Jane to her thoughts.

How long she sat there, she wasn't sure; but the sound of a child's giggle drew Jane out of her thoughts. After a second of internal deliberation, she stood and walked over to the Medbay proper; and leaned against the frame of the hatchway, allowing a small smile to creep up on her face as she watched Oriana play with her little sister; the two year old squealing in happiness, even as Shiala and Phil slept away oblivious to the world.

Agent Brooks had been taken to a holding cell, given nothing more than a hospital gown for fear that she would use her clothing to hang herself.

Jane was stone-faced as she looked at the IAA agent, the living embodiment of the direction her own Systems Alliance seemed to be heading. She wanted to deny it; to tell herself that Exo-Geni was an aberration and that Brooks was a rogue agent, but her gut said otherwise. Something dark was brewing in the highest halls of power of the Alliance, and she was only now scratching the surface of the problem. She _needed_ to resolve this damned Triple Alliance business so she could dig deeper and root it out before the SA became something terrible.

Shaking off the dark thoughts clouding her mind, Jane turned her attention back to Oriana; immediately taking in the girl's features. Wavy black hair, pale white skin, brown eyes; but a little tall and somewhat busty.

She could have very easily been mistaken for a twenty year old despite being only seventeen; and Jane had the distinct feeling that she would look like this for a _very_ long time, if the readings that Doctor Chakwas had taken were at all accurate.

Jane cleared her throat, and Oriana jumped; her sister jumping as well, before the two year old smiled and waved at Jane happily. Jane smiled and waved back, "Hey girls… I suppose some introductions are in order, huh?"

Oriana swallowed, not taking her eyes off Jane; while Freya just giggled, "Hi! I'm Freya! This is Ori!" She exclaimed.

Jane smile grew wider and nodded, "My name is Lt. Commander Jahenne Shepard-Vakarian, but you can just call me Jane." She said, pulling up a chair beside the girls bed. "I just wanted to make sure you girls are okay… and I wanted to talk to you about something." Her smile faltered ever so slightly.

Oriana clearly noticed the change and sidled up to her sister. Jane saw the slight tension in the young woman's posture and guessed she thought Jane intended to separate them.

Jane held up her hand, "I don't intend to separate you; even if we can't find another family to take you in, I think a Spectre's word is more than enough to make sure you get custody." She said, not breaking eye contact as she talked. "No… what I want to talk about is this." She handed Oriana the data slate, even as Freya giggled and grabbed at Oriana's black curls.

The young lady read over the sheet dispassionately at first; and then Jane saw recognition and resignation pass over Oriana's face when she got past the genealogy and into the genetics.

"I only understand this in the broadest of strokes," Jane remained a comfortable distance from the two, "but I think you get the gist of what this means."

Oriana looked down at Freya and gave a pained smile, then looked back at the Commander with tired eyes. "It means that, as far as Citadel Council and Systems Alliance law are concerned, I'm an abomination; a monster."

Jane stepped up and rested a hand on Ori's shoulder. "There are _no_ monsters on this ship."

* * *

"I'm a monster! Nina and Tali we're right! I'm a monster."

Garrus just buzzed in distress as he tried to calm Eve down, holding her tightly in her Turian form as she cried and sobbed; tears streaming down her face. He had learned what had happened the minute he had stepped on board and set Phil down in the medbay; and right now, all he could do was hold his daughter and wait for her to calm down somewhat before he could try anything else.

He had read about this sort of thing in basic; the youngest were almost always sent to Rear Echelon units, like supply, as opposed to frontline units. Only those that reupped like Garrus himself were sent to combat posts.

But sometimes, life found ways to make the lives of children utter hell; and Eve was showing the same signs many rear echelon draftees showed after their first taste of real combat. But Eve… Eve had likely just gone through something much worse than anything Garrus could have imagined.

Still… from everything that Garrus had seen and heard; Eve had made the right choice, he just had to convince her she had in fact done the right thing.

He buzzed comfortingly as he held her. "You're not a monster; you're a Vakarian and a Shepard. That means you do what you must to save who you can."

"But I didn't save anyone! All I did was lead them to their deaths!" Eve cried, burying her head in her talons; even as tears continued to stream down her face.

"Yes you did." He tipped her chin up, thankful she was maintaining the integrity of her projection. "You saved the crew, and you saved the two girls. What were their names?" It was an old interviewing technique from his C-SEC days that he was glad he remembered.

Eve sniffled. "Oriana and Freya." She wasn't trying to hide her face anymore, though grief was plain as his colony marks to see.

He smiled and buzzed just a little harder, trusting her to know what it meant. "That's right. If you hadn't acted when you did, then the Marines would have _had_ to shoot them as well. There's the very real chance our detail would have been overrun, and that means Ashley, Kaiden and Kal would all likely be injured or dead right now. The colonists would have been aboard and then it would be up to the rest of the crew to try to fend off the Mushroom-Crazed invaders; that means Tali and San and Lia and Charles and Greg. Your quick thinking saved them."

He hugged her. "Thank you for saving them all. I could wish with all my heart that you never had to experience this, but I am _so_ proud that you stepped up when you did. You did the Vakarian and Shepard names proud."

He remained still and held his daughter as she tried to process a grief sapients have wrestled with since the beginning of time.

* * *

Jane just rubbed her eyes, and I knew that it was going to be a tough session today.

As much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to start off the meeting with my agenda; and so I said, "Alright… let's address the elephant in the room. What do we do about Agent Brooks?"

It was something that still took me off guard, how different this universe was; but Maya Brooks being an IAA agent was something that was less of a shock to me. Maya Brooks wasn't even her real name if I recalled correctly, but that didn't matter.

What mattered was that she was currently in a cell with nothing but a hospital gown, having been thoroughly searched this time; and was likely regretting her life's choices at the moment. Of course, I still felt a little bad about blowing up at my teammates over their slipup down in the tunnels; but I think that I had gotten my point across rather well.

And to be fair to them, they were understanding about it; "What do _you _think we should do Major?" Shepard asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.

I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair, "Our standard interrogation process isn't working; and Ms. Brooks knows _something_, that much is clear. But she's not spilling, and we don't have anything like truth serum and the like aboard at the moment."

I looked around the table, and saw that there were some mixed reactions to my unspoken proposal. Jane and Garrus' features hardened, while Shiala looked contemplative; Kal and Ash looked uncertain, and Kaiden looked a little sick.

Only Kirrahe seemed to be readily supportive, and I wasn't really sure what to say about that.

"_Torture_ is Illegal…" Jane practically spat out, and I grimaced.

"I'm a Ghost ma'am, but I'm not untouchable; just as how you aren't either. No… I'm proposing some 'enhanced interrogation' instead. Nothing physical, just mental." I replied, leaning forward and meeting Shepherd's gaze. "Give her irregular meals, turn up the temperature in her cell at night to sweltering heat, and then cool it down to freezing during the day. Spray her down with a hose to get her clean, then turn on the cold; things like that. All of it to deprive her of things like sleep and wear down her mental barriers to get her to slip up."

Charles Pressley furrowed his brows and leaned forward. "However amoral she is, she's both an Alliance citizen _and_ a member of our own intelligence apparatus. If it gets out we used what you are suggesting, even and _especially _under SPECTER authority, we can expect some serious backlash from the SA Parliament as well as the Joint Chiefs."

I grimaced, "As much as I hate to say it… I've seen this kind of thing before, though I never took part in or liked it. There was this one South African chick we worked with, she _loved_ torture; took absolute pleasure in it, but She _always_ got answers. They were always confessions and intel that you could count on." I rubbed my eyes angrily. "If you guys have something else in mind, I'm all for it; but we need answers, and there's no way in hell I'm handing this woman off to the IAA or the GST proper."

"So we need an impartial third party. Any ideas?" Jane glanced around the table.

There was silence for a long moment, when Aethyta brightened; "I personally am not able to do this… But there are _some _Asari able to enter what is known as a 'Deep Meld'."

Shiala chuffed, earning a glare from the Matriarch. "Nobody here, not even you, can just 'whistle-up' a Justicar." She began ticking off fingers. "First, we'd need to know where to _find_ one, _then_ convince her to do so without it being a part of whatever her 'sworn duty' of the week was."

I thought it over, knowing that the GST had been trying to build ties with the Justicars over the past few years; then I remembered something from the last security brief about a week ago. "I… _think_, I may have something…" I said slowly, drawing everyone's attention.

"_You_ have contacts within the Justicars?" Shiala asked incredulously, staring at me in disbelief.

I shook my head, "Not directly, but I know a guy… Excuse me, I need to make a few calls."

* * *

_Justicar_ Falil half expected to be greeted at the airlock by the other half of the team that had so thoroughly humiliated Councilor Tevos and landed her in her current cycle in life. She felt equal measures of relief and disappointment at the collection of strangers.

It was an impressive menagerie to be sure: human and Quarian Marines, a Krogan Battlemaster, another _Huntress_ standing next to the least inconspicuous STG Wet-Works specialist she had ever seen, a Turian, and five of the most dangerous humans she had ever laid eyes on.

_Whelp; this will be interesting at least._

"Hiram…" A short human male stood at the center, his arms crossed in front of him. He wore the tan and brown fatigues the ones of the GST seemed to favor. A single Bronze leaf was on each of his lapels, as was a pair of silver wings above his left breast pocket. His most defining feature however, was the dark grey _poncho_ draped over his shoulders; the green beret on his head, and the admittedly impressive set of facial hair that was trimmed into what these particular humans had called _'Captain Price Chops'_, whoever and whatever that was. "I see you have gotten a promotion. Congrats Case Officer." He said, dropping the serious tone and breaking out in a big smile; taking the man and pulling him into a quick hug.

The fidgety human who had so recently become the bane of her existence huffed and clapped the other on the back. "Just a secondary duty while I was convalescing and the rest of Jawa was MIA." He scratched nervously at his stomach and glanced back at the rest of his crew.

The dark-skinned ship commander, Juan, stepped forward. "If you're done making out, _pendejo_? Commander, permission to come aboard?"

The Commander swept aside her own Black and Blood Red _Poncho_, wearing it more like the Major did; and eyed up Falil and the other humans, "Permission granted." She said simply, crossing her arms as she stared at Falil in particular; distrust written clearly across her face.

Hiram gave a quick Salute, while Falil resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the almost overdone gesture of respect; "Ma'am, may I present _Justicar_ Falil." He turned back to the Asari in question. "This is your stop."

Falil snorted. "Does this mean I'm finally done with you?"

The obnoxious human scratched under his chin. "I suppose that depends on what deal you had with Arc. We'll see."

Juan advanced towards the human Commander Falil now recognized as Interim-SPECTER Shepard. "The _Mork's_ got some new systems that haven't really integrated well. With your permission ma'am, I'd like some of your engineers to see if they could help us through some teething issues before we hit the _black_ again."

The SPECTER hesitated for a moment, and Falil thought she saw a flash of something in her eyes; not avarice, but at a minimum a desire to learn something. _Are these _GST_ types really that separate from the rest of the SA, that the vaunted _Hero of Elysium_ is in the dark about them? _

_Interesting._

"If you'll follow me Justicar, we will take you to meet the person we would like you to extract the information from." The Major said, gesturing towards the elevator.

Falil gave a nod and followed the human officer, the Commander standing beside her as they entered the elevator. It was a surprisingly quick ride, especially compared to the citadel; _Why can't they make all elevators go this fast?_ She thought, somewhat impatient even still.

"So I understand this Agent willfully led a group of innocent people to their deaths?" She asked, trying to pry up some information; as the message had been rather sparse all things considered.

"Something along those lines, we'll give you all the information we have; but that's the short of it, yeah…" The Major stated, crossing his arms with a grim expression on his face; but Falil did not miss the pain that flashed across it.

_So he feels somewhat responsible for it… interesting. _She thought, before turning her attention to Shepard. "So what exactly will I be looking for in this Agent's mind?"

The Commander brushed some imaginary dust off her poncho, "We need to know if she was a Rogue Agent, or if she was acting under direct orders from her superiors in the IAA or even the Alliance itself."

Falil felt understanding dawn in her mind, and she sighed; It was unfortunate, but if her suspicions were correct then the Spectre was going to use the information taken from Falil's 'Deep Meld' to open an official investigation into the Alliance Government.

Falil had travelled far and wide and had met _many _different species and experienced many different cultures; but all had one trait that seemed to be universal amongst everyone. Power corrupted them, and once power was given away easily; it was not so easily taken away, even amongst humans, who seemed to change leadership every few years and limited their governments power to try and prevent this sort of phenomena from happening.

_Beep!_

The Elevator doors opened, and the Major exited first; leading the way to the _Normandy_'s Medbay where the prisoner was being held.

Falil had expected many things, and had seen many things; but the way they were holding the IAA agent was not among them. She had a curtain drawn around her bed and bandages over the wounds on her shoulder and her leg, although the curtain was see through enough that Falil could make out the general shape and details of what was behind it; the Agent was manacled to the edges of the bed, her arms over her head and her legs spread apart.

And she was naked, not even a blanket or a hospital gown; and the glare of hate she was giving everyone in the room could have melted titanium.

Falil spun on the two humans in fury, already making assumptions; but the Commander held up a hand. "The Curtain is to give her _some_ privacy, and that's all we can afford to give her. Any cloths we gave her, she inevitably attempted to kill herself with; same with blankets, and she even resorted to giving herself dozens of paper cuts with those damned hospital gowns." Shepard explained, then gestured to the curtain itself; which still did a very poor job of giving her protection from others wandering eyes. "And the Curtain is semi-see through so we can still see what she's doing; as she's already managed to slip them once when we gave her a more opaque curtain. It's only thanks to Ms. Irwin that her escape, or suicide, was prevented."

She gestured over to a nearby hospital bed; where a very pretty looking Maiden with Black hair, who seemed a little embarrassed by the praise, sat with a small child on her lap. A Biotic human and the ship's Doctor stood next to her, both keeping an eye on the restrained Agent.

Falil blinked as she took in the Maiden and narrowed her eyes; "Unless you humans are like the Turians and train your adolescents to fight, I don't see how she was able to take down this Agent."

The Girl swallowed, "I got lucky." was all she said, before standing quickly; "If you're done with my checkup doctor, I would like to get some food for Freya."

"Of course Ms. Irwin, your injuries have healed nicely." The Doctor replied with a small smile.

The Commander glanced at them for a moment, "Lieutenant Alenko, If you would please escort Ms. Irwin and her sister? She may be a guest, but this is still a military ship; and this… 'interrogation' is a military matter." She ordered, fixing the three with a stern look.

The human biotic nodded, "Aye, Aye ma'am."

The Maiden swallowed heavily, "Where can we go?" She asked, "We haven't been allowed anywhere beyond our Quarters, the Mess hall, and the Medbay for checkups."

The Commanders gaze softened ever so slightly, and Falil recognized the look from many Matrons she had met; a sort of motherly reassurance, "The Lieutenant will show you where you can go; as for what we'll be having you do for the duration of the rest of our journey… we'll work that out later."

The girl nodded, and quickly left the medbay, the lieutenant close behind; though he did pause long enough to type in a command, and the windows to the medbay all turned from see through to black.

Once they were gone, Falil turned to the Commander; "And who might she be, if she is a civilian?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She and her little sister are the sole survivors of the Colony we recovered Ms. Brooks from." The Major stated tersely, and Falil knew that she was treading on thin ground; and so dropped the issue, although she knew it warranted investigation.

"Shall we begin?" The doctor asked, and Falil nodded; before turning her attention to the beaten, bloodied, naked, feral, but still attractive human woman laying in front of her.

The human had not had her mind in the sky, but instead had been paying rapt attention to everything happening in front of her; the cloth gag over her mouth was a crude but efficient way to keep her silent. But now she squirmed and struggled against her restaurants, quickly managing to remove her gag from her mouth.

"Do your worst you fuckin' space lesbian _bitch_; I'm not going to break, no matter what you do to me!" She sneered. "So fuck me, break my bones, wear down my mind; I won't talk."

Falil narrowed her eyes, while the Commander tensed next to her; and the Major growled lowly like an animal. "No… I will not be doing those unsavory things to you, nor will anyone else. But you _will _give me the information, whether you know it or not." She stated, even as she leaned forward. Agent Brooks' eyes widened, and she leaned away from Falil as the Justicar started to glow with a Biotic field.

Brooks opened her mouth, to do what Falil wasn't sure; but the Major walked forward and quickly put his hand over her mouth, and then resecured her gag. He stepped back and nodded, even as Brooks thrashed, trying to get away; her brown skin having turned more and more pale with every passing second.

_It's a pity… She is so beautiful, yet so cruel. _Falil thought sadly as she looked the woman over; before touching her index and middle finger to Agent Brooks' temple, and her thumb to Brooks' cheek. "_Embrace Eternity._"

* * *

Oriana didn't know what to think about the _Normandy_, or more accurately her crew.

She rubbed her eyes furiously, even as she continued to work on the test that the Commander had given her; it had been remarkably easy so far, despite the Commander's insistence that it was rather hard. _Perhaps it's because I finally have some alone time_. She thought bitterly.

She loved Freya with all her heart, and she swore to be just as good of a mother to Freya as their mom had been to her. But she was still a teenager even if she didn't look or act like it, and she needed time to herself.

She hadn't missed the looks many of the men had been sending her when she had done the Physical Fitness test; and while flattering, she had been somewhat relieved when the Commander and the Major had taken those men aside and layed down the law.

Still, she wasn't some virgin glowing in an Illium strip club; and she had given as good as she'd gotten. _Still… that Quarian was fun to tease_. She thought with a slight giggle. _What was his name? Col?_ She wondered as she struggled to remember the name.

She closed her eyes as her thoughts strayed from the test to her friends; both on Illium and on Feros. Ones she would likely never see again for the rest of her young life, and the others slaughtered because of that creepy IAA agent.

She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes as she thought of all the good times she'd had; her first kiss, the junior dance, exploring the tunnels, her violin practices.

_KnockKnock…_

"Come in." Oriana said absently, and the hatch opened; revealing Lt. Commander Shepard. "Ah Commander, come in please." She exclaimed, quickly standing and gesturing to her bed; quickly rubbing her eyes when the Commander's back was turned.

It wouldn't due for her to cry since she was nearly an adult legally; she didn't cry. "So," she fought down a sniffle, "what can I do for you, ma'am?" She asked after a long moment.

The commander was inscrutable for a long moment, before she finally said; "I wanted to talk to you about your test results, and what we're going to do about you in the future…" Here she paused, and her tone became more gentle; "And if you're ready for it, your parents."

A wave of bitterness washed over her. "I assume when you say 'parents', you mean 'biological progenitors' and not the couple who raised me?"

She gave a sympathetic nod, "Yeah… if you're ready for it that is." Jane reiterated.

Oriana only felt her bitterness increase, as she remembered that she had been only ten when she had first asked her parents about it; how she looked nothing like them, how she seemed to be twice or even three times stronger, twice as fast, three times smarter, and having twice the reaction times of boys and girls nearly twice her age.

She remembered how her mother, the woman who raised her, began weeping at the thought that her 'Little Ori' wouldn't feel the same way ever again. She remembered her father trying to keep stoic as he explained their adoption of her; even as he worried about how she would react.

"I… I know that my Biological Mother is still alive, or at least _was_ alive when she handed me off to my _real _Parents." She finally spat, "Mom said that she used to think that she was a full adult when she handed me off, but when she saw how I… developed early; Mom speculated that my Biological mother was probably some sort of rich teenager about my age when she had me, and didn't want to deal with the scandal or the responsibility." Oriana crossed her arms, "About the only good thing my mom ever had to say about her was that she at least seemed to care enough to not have me aborted."

Jane winced internally; this was a tremendous amount of cynicism for someone not yet old enough to vote. "You truly feel that way about her?" She asked softly, having noticed that the poor girl had been nearly in tears when she had entered. Jane wouldn't have asked had she not heard the slightest of tremors in the girls voice.

"Well what else am I supposed to think?!" Ori blurted out. "She just passed me off like a... a lawn ornament!"

"She placed you in the care of a professional couple with ample resources, and by our records, multiple failed attempts to conceive." Jane's voice was soft and even. "Oriana… as you said yourself, you are more than just a normal human; and your physical fitness reports say as much." She handed Ori the data slate, and the raven haired teenager quickly snatched it up and read through it as fast as possible.

Her eyes widened slightly, and she rasped; "I… I didn't…"

"You always held back to keep your abilities hidden, didn't you?" Jane asked, even as she pulled up the same results along with the medical scans onto her omnitool. "So what caused you to decide to put them to the test and stretch your wings now?" When Ori didn't answer, Jane began reading off the results. "_Biotic_ abilities that are on par with that of an Asari Battle Matron, three times the strength of the average Alliance Marine, twice the speed and endurance, two and a half times the reaction time of the average human…"

"Because..." Oriana stared at the slate for a moment. "Because I was angry." She grit her teeth and began frowning. "Because mom and dad had just died because of something _she_ was involved in but _conveniently_ immune to." A purple halo rippled over the teen for a moment as the slate sparked for a moment before biotically crumpling in her hands. "Because I'm _done_ having everyone else decide 'what's best', only for my life to just get worse and worse!" The slate collapsed into a pinprick as Ori let it fall to the deck with a -_**thunk**_-.

Jane didn't break eye contact with the young woman as she slowly stood with her hands raised; the rage was real, as was the grief, but the rage was something that gave Jane a _real _cause for concern. _I'm talking with a living, breathing, superhuman that can either biotically break every bone in my body or snap my neck just by backhanding me._ She thought idly, before quickly shaking off the dark thought; knowing that the poor teenager in front of her needed nurturing and comfort, not suspicion and fear.

"Ori… please, calm down…" Jane said slowly, reaching forward to try and set a hand on her shoulder.

Oriana's shoulders began to shake slightly; "I'm nothing more than a living weapon… that's how everyone always saw me growing up; just a ticking time bomb. Only my adopted parents cared about me." She rasped, even as tears began to slip down her cheeks; quickly wiping them when she noticed them.

She gave a frustrated shout, and punched the wall; and Jane noted that she wasn't using Biotics now. Despite that, she still managed to put a dent in the bulkhead; and while she cursed and held her hand, the pain seemed to go away _very_ quickly.

Or she was just good at hiding it, but Jane wasn't sure if she was honest with herself. "As a government trained 'living weapon', I don't see you that way." She took a slow but confident step in and put a hand on Ori's shoulder. "I see a young woman who's never had the chance to just _be_. If you want, I'd like to offer you that chance."

Ori sniffed and wiped her eyes, looking at Jane with a hint of confusion; "What do you mean?" She asked, massaging her fist even as the bruises that had formed seconds ago were already fading away.

"I have a number of contacts, both inside and outside of the Alliance. If you want, I could set you and Freya up on any colony you choose, either with a foster family or on your own, if that is what you want."

Oriana's eyes flicked in indecision. "And if I decline?"

Jane smiled and gripped the girl's shoulder. "Then I'll drop you and Freya off on the Citadel with a nest-egg of credits to help you on whatever path you choose."

Ori closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. "Thank you. I think I'll try the Citadel option; I have to make my own way, and I should start learning how now." She opened her eyes and looked into Jane's. "I hope you understand."

Jane nodded and pulled Ori into a hug; one which was returned with near bone-crushing force.

Ori sniffled and hiccuped. "Thank you."

* * *

Oriana furiously punched the bag in front of her, the loud _thumps_ echoing throughout the tiny gym on the ship. It was late, the only people awake were those on the 'dog watch'; Freya was asleep in their quarters, and Ori had made sure to remove all non-toddler proof things in there beforehand.

"_Oriana… you're adopted_._"_

At least she had some time to think, and genuinely consider the Commanders offer; and get some alone time again. She needed to clear her head, and there weren't many places to do so on the ship. She still wasn't sure if striking it out on her own with Freya was a smart choice, but it felt like the right choice; and her gut was rarely wrong.

"_I'd like you to meet your baby sister Freya."_

She kept punching, ignoring how her tank top was soaked from both her sweat and how she'd resorted to dumping water on herself to keep herself cool. At least she was awake, but then she'd never really needed that much sleep; likely thanks to her freaky genetic augmentations.

"_Hey beautiful, you got some nice tits and ass."_

She began putting more force into her punches, even as she remembered breaking the Jocks jaw and cracking his skull without even trying; barely putting any effort into the punch at all at the time. She remembered how the jackass senior and his friends had then tried to take retribution on her; the freshman who looked like a senior.

"_Stop! You'll kill them!"_

She had broken bones and damaged organs to protect herself; with not a scratch or bruise on her body. Only security footage and other students' testimony had kept her from going to juvie hall. It was on that day that she realized, that no matter how much her parents pretended otherwise; she was nothing more than a living weapon, the pinnacle of humanity meant to prove to the rest of the galaxy that humans were meant to be respected.

"_Hey babe, would you like to come home with me? I can show you something I think you'd like." _

She snarled as her tank top started to dry up and started to impede her waist movement; and quickly tore it off, drinking in the nice cool air from the ship for a brief moment before the heat from her workout began overwhelming her. Normally she would be self conscious about wearing nothing but short shorts and a bra; but that was something that she had long since caring about. She looked _very _appealing to guys and some girls no matter how she was dressed; so she had long since stopped feeling self conscious about her body.

_Hell, I could be doing this naked and not care who saw… except Freya…_ She thought, even as another memory came to mind.

"_You're a freak Irwin! Someday you ain't going to be paying attention; and when that happens I'll be there!"_

"RAAGH!" She delivered so much force into her punch that she broke the chain holding the punching bag up; and ripped the leather outside of the bag, before sending it flying into the wall with a loud _Bang!_

Oriana's eyes widened and she put her hands up to her mouth. "Oh shit!" She exclaimed. She hadn't meant to do that, and worse she had damaged the inside of the ship; _that_ was definitely an issue that needed to get fixed.

The problem was that she had no idea _who_ to go to; as most everyone was asleep, and she really didn't want to bother anyone. But she didn't know how to fix it, so what was she to do?

The door slid open behind her, and Oriana spun around; "Uh, look I can ex-" She stopped dead when she realized it was one of the Quarians. Col to be precise, the one that she had joked around with earlier in the day.

"Um… _Kheelah_… uh…" He stammed, even as he turned purple and looked away.

Ori blinked, she put her hands on her hips and smirked; "Like what you see?" she asked rhetorically, before rolling her eyes, "oh calm down, it's nothing you probably haven't seen before." She grumbled as Col continued to stammer, before reaching down and pulling her tank top back on.

The Quarian Pilgrim seemed to recover, and looked over at the wall with wide eyes; his cloak like hood, whatever it was called, may have covered the lower half of his face but Ori was good at reading people and could tell that he was still surprised. He looked over at the wall and gaped slightly, "Did… did _you _do that?" He asked, before rushing over to look at the bag then the wall. "By the Ancestors, that's amazing; do you know the amount of force you would need to put into your punch to put a dent in the wall _and_ break the chain _and_ tear the bag itself by causing the sand to break out of the other side?"

Ori gave an uneasy smile, "I calculate about 9,000 pounds of force from my fist." She admitted.

"Hm… more like 9,100 pounds, or 40,500 newtons; and that's just to break the bag itself; and I timed your run around the ship you know. I think you averaged out to around forty kilometers per hour; if you take out the times you had to slow down or stop when going around corners or through tight areas." Col replied excitedly.

Ori blinked, surprised at both how quickly he had calculated the force and the average speed of her five kilometer run around the longest part of the ship; and also surprised at the fact that he didn't seem afraid or repulsed by it. "Er…" She started, quickly running through the math in her head; "That's about right, although did you factor in the areas I had to climb up and down the ladders leading to the respective decks?"

Col nodded, picking up the ruined punching bag with a loud grunt; dragging it over towards a pile of presumably broken exercise equipment, "It was a simple calculus, since you literally just jumped from one deck to the other if you were going down _or _up; so I just had to factor in your weight and the amount of Citadel Standard Gravity this ship produces." He explained, grabbing another punching bag.

Ori blinked as he dragged it over a second punching bag, clearly struggling to lift it as it was for heavyweights like the last one was. "Uh… how much do you weigh by the way?" He asked innocently, even as he clipped the bag to the chain above the broken one.

Ori couldn't help but snort, then had to suppress a giggle; "You know, I don't know how it is amongst Quarian women; but with human women, it's considered rude to ask a lady her weight." She said with a laugh.

His glowing eyes widened slightly and he tilted his head; "Why? Weight is a good indicator over whether or not a person is healthy." He said curiously.

She was really trying to hold back laughter at how his question seemed to be soaked in innocence; it seemed that however long he'd been on this ship, human culture had not impacted him much. "It's because in human society, if you ask a woman how much they weigh; it implies that they're fat. Same with asking their age, it implies they look old." She replied, smiling nonetheless.

Col's visor gave a _Blaat _sound, "Please, you look great; you don't look old or overweight at all." He said, though Ori could detect the slightest bit of laughter in his own voice. Ori couldn't hold it back anymore and started laughing, and Col quickly joined her; the two laughing, talking, and exercising long into the night.

For the first time in a very long time, Oriana felt… human.

When it finally got to the point where both were too tired to continue, both started putting the equipment away; when Col paused, "So… I heard the Commander offered to drop you off on the Citadel and set you and your daughter on your way."

Ori blinked, "My daughter? I think you mean my little sister; I'm a year younger than you, not older." She pointed out, then tilted her head; "Why do you bring it up?" she asked.

Col shrugged, "In Quarian culture, if you are taking care of a child that is at least fifteen years younger than you; then you are its parent no matter the blood relation." He explained. "Of course, if there are other blood relatives then they receive priority in caring for said child." His demeanor darkened slightly. "It's why Lia probably won't return to the Flotilla. She's all but raised Fyodor for the past two years, first on the citadel and then here; it would break her to lose him, even if it's to his kin."

Ori's eyes brightened in understanding; "Ah, that makes sense I suppose; though you didn't answer my question regarding why you brought up the Commander dropping me off on the Citadel." She pointed out.

Col winced and wrung his hands together for a moment, "Well…" He started, before scratching his hair under his _Seemas_, "I was wondering if I could join you, at least for a part of your journey?" he finally asked, somewhat rushing the last part even as his eye glow dim and he looked away as if he expected to be struck.

Ori hesitated, wondering if Col wasn't more like the men she normally had to deal with than he let on. "Why? You have a home of sorts here; friends and support. Why leave that to travel with a strange human?" She winced as she subconsciously emphasized _strange._

Col sighed and took a seat at one of the benches; "The fact of the matter is that I'm _useless _here. For a Quarian, I'm a rather average engineer and compared to the others I have nothing here beyond what? Friendship means nothing to my clan if I return to the fleet with nothing, _assuming I even want to go back_." That last part he muttered in _Kheelish_, not aware that Oriana had studied Alien languages; and while she had mainly focused on _Thessian_ and _Palavanese_, she was passingly familiar with _Kheelish_.

He rubbed his eyes, refusing to look at Ori as he said; "Tali will likely join the Marine Raiders to finish off her pilgrimage, Lia won't return because of Fyodor but she plans to become a Nurse; Jaali already has her gift with her Engine discharge and maneuverability Theorems, Leah is already becoming a great cook which will be vital to the fleet when the cure goes out, and San has those damned Mobile Emitters that can make you look like _any_ species provided you're smaller than your disguise."

He groaned and thumped his head against the bulkhead, "And what have I got? No stomach for combat, average engineering skills, and no interest in medicine. I'm useless… the only thing that interests me is writing and Armor; one of which is also useless, and the other is something the _Kelek'miin_ seem to freely give out."

Ori looked suspiciously at Col. "Okay, I guess I can see all that; but why come with me and Freya?"

Col shrugged absently, "I guess, because you're going." He looked up at the ceiling. "I got so used to being on the _Normandy_; so comfortable seeing all the new places and people. But it's a Human Warship, so it doesn't really go places where a Pilgrim can safely depart and learn."

He smiled wide. "We did go to Earth and toured around, and that's something very few Quarians have ever done. I'd like to go back at some point and tour around _without_ a minder; get lost, see things you can only see by accident, and then write about it so my people can really know who they are dealing with if they follow."

Ori seemed to relax slightly, which prompted a confused look from Col; "So you mean you want to write a sort of… guide to the galaxy then?" She asked.

Col jumped up and nodded, practically bouncing on his toes now; "Yes, exactly! Like for example, your accent. Even to alien ears, human's have _many_ different accents for your primary language. Only we Quarians have that much Variety; for example, my accent and Tali's come from the eastern plains of Rannoch from the regions the 'Zorah Monarchies ruled. Sergeant 'Reegar and Fon's accents are from the northern parts of the main continent; where the Lun Republics were, they were the main ocean traders." He rambled excitedly, not noticing as Oriana smiled slightly, and fought down a giggle.

"What about you? Where are you from?" He asked suddenly, catching her by surprise; "The Major is from _Mare-land_, and his accent's almost aristocratic for lack of a better term; and the Commander's is rather plain and soft spoken, but it too has an underlying current of Aristocracy. Though according to the Commander, she was born and raised on ships; but still has relatives in a place called _Ing-land._" He was talking so fast that Ori was barely able to keep up with him.

Ori's smile became slightly sad. "Mom and Dad were from Australia. It's the only country on earth that occupies the entire continent it's on. They said they were from Adalaide in New South Wales. It has a _unique_ history."

"So… why were you so reluctant to have me accompany you? Males and females travel in pairs all the time during pilgrimages." Col asked, tilting his head slightly.

Oriana sighed, and hugged herself under her breasts; cursing her appearance not for the first or the last time; "Because… I don't have the best experience with people in general. When I was fourteen I started to develop rather fast; and I don't know about Quarians, but human females don't really develop until sixteen or seventeen." She started, and Col listened with rapt attention.

"The Other girls were all jealous of all the men plodding after me, and the men were just trying to get into my pants, er…" she stopped on seeing the confusion on Col's face, "trying to get me to have sex with them." She elaborated, and smiled slightly at the disgust that crossed the Quarians face. "And none of them were all too subtle about it either, on the rare occasion I went to parties; they would try and slip drugs or alcohol to get me intoxicated and the like. Of course, thanks to my metabolism, drugs and Alcohol don't affect me."

She rubbed her fists subconsciously. "Other times they would grope my boobs and ass, which would result in broken jaws and fractured skulls oftentimes; and that was when I was _restraining _myself. But inevitably, people would find out about my strength and speed and everything else; and they would treat me like a freak…"

Col looked at Ori seriously. "I would never try that." She noted he blushed slightly and glanced away as he continued. "Until earlier this year, I spent my entire life in a protective suit. Among Quarians, physical contact of any kind is reserved for only the closest of family." His whole face fell. "I only have a single holograph of my mother's and father's unmasked faces, since I haven't seen them with my own eyes since I was an infant."

Ori looked down and sighed, "I believe you…" She chuckled, "Considering the fact that you were more interested in how much damage I did with my punch than ogling my boobs." She noted.

Ori sat down in front of Col and smiled, "Col'Seenar, I would be honored to have you occompay on my journey."

* * *

Tali followed Chief Engineer Adams down the microgravity ship-way towards the _Mork_.

_And I thought the _Quib-Quib_ was a bad name for a ship._

They had a bevy of tools with them, including a mobile emitter interface for Eve. Tali was both surprised and alarmed when Eve had asked she be treated and addressed like a normal VI while aboard the _Mork._ In her limited experience, members of the GST were quite accepting, but if Eve was uncomfortable, she would oblige her.

They arrived onto the ship itself. It was simultaneously cramped and spacious; the space itself was rather narrow, but microgravity meant that nobody was limited to how they had to be in order to fit onboard.

Jaali and Leah followed close behind, both of them struggling to fit inside the cramped ship.

"Gang-way!" Everyone flailed around for a moment as one of the 'Brothers' shot down the length of the ship towards the engineering compartment.

"Sorry about this." the other floated through at a slightly more sedate pace.

"Is something going on?" Jaali asked the other Normandy team members.

"Only what _El Jeffe_ mentioned earlier;" Hiram drifted down from one of the habitat arms, "the _Mork_'s relatively new but uses some of our legacy software and we're having problems getting the two to handshake properly."

"Oh? How so?" Jaali perked up even as she slowly spun in place.

Hiram worked his mouth for a moment, then grabbed the bulkhead and Jaali to stop her from spinning. "There." Jaali froze at the contact, though Hiram didn't seem to notice and simply let her go. "_El Jeffe_ and I have noticed a roving blind spot in our sensors, and Hans and Frans are chasing a power drain. It's only a dozen or so milliamps, but the last thing we need is for the charge to build up somewhere and short something out while we're superluminal."

Leah came to the rescue of her clearly flustered compatriot. "Well let's help the brothers first; it won't do us any good to try and fix your software issues if it's being caused by a faulty ground."

Jaali came back to herself at that. "Ye...yes. We've seen that kind of problem before back in the flotilla."

Hiram nodded and motioned towards the engine compartment. "After you then."

The group drifted down the ship's length, though Jaali lagged slightly ahead of the... Tali wasn't sure what to call them. Were they Ghosts? They belonged to the same organization as Pilgrim Lee, but there seemed to be a difference of status, or maybe just a different department. They lacked the same intensity as the Major's team, but there was still something about them that was different.

She shook her head as they drifted into the cramped engine compartment. The brothers were hovering over a secondary circuit bus while jabbing it with diagnostic tools.

"Well then it's got to be the AE-35 circuit." One pointed at a holographic readout.

The other shook his head. "I checked that one _Brah_, right before we picked up 'Judge Falil'."

"Which end did you check from?" Tali drifted towards the brothers. "If the fault is on the other side of a Diode or a Rectifier, you might not get a fault reading from one side of the circuit."

The first brother backhanded the first's shoulder. "See? You should trust me more _Brah_."

Jaali swallowed and quickly pulled up her omnitool; ignoring the brothers as she worked, as sibling fighting was quite common across races. Although Twins were something that was incredibly rare to the point that they were nearly unheard of.

Tali Brought up Eve's Mobile-Emitter disguised as an Omnitool. "Would you be willing to let our VI handle this part?"

The Mork's crew glanced back and forth for a moment, then nodded and pushed themselves away from the data access point.

Tali signaled to Eve. "Alright _Chiquita_, time to get to work."

All of the GST ship crew smirked for some reason at that, and Tali noticed Eve hesitated for a moment before diving into the _Mork_'s systems. In order to distract herself, Tali looked around the ship for a moment; and then noticed something strapped to the bulkhead next to similarly restrained weapons.

It looked like that weapon from that movie where humans hunted _Kelek'miin_ for a living. "Pardon me for asking… but what's that?" She asked, pointing at the strange tube; noting that the other GST members turned to look at the friend of the Majors.

Hiram chuckled and thumped a fist against the device. "This is a bit of a vanity project of mine, and something the Major suggested to me; we call it the Gluon Gun... Or rather _he _calls it the Gluon Gun, I call it the BFG Mk V."

Jaali drifted over and began examining the device. "Mark five? What happened to the other four?"

Hiram unhooked the device and the articulated harness it was attached to from the wall. "Well the Mk. IV went up with the _Marvin_. I suppose what's left of it is in a Turian evidence locker somewhere." Hiram began hooking the harness up with Jaali's assistance. "The Mk. III had a serious cooling problem so I scrapped it. The I and II were more learning tools in refining the design and operation."

Once the last closure was locked in place, the device powered up with an audible whirr and humm. Tali and Jaali watched with fascination, and Tali asked; "Why does the Major refer to it as the Gluon Gun, and you refer to it as the BFG?"

One of the brother's piped up before Hiram had a chance to speak. "Both are fictional hand-held weapons-of-mass-destruction."

All the Normandy crew flinched back at that, causing the other brother to dope-slap the first.

Hiram waved the two off. "It's a Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator that fires Hydrogen Ions. This particular version uses one of the new 'Quarnex Batteries' our R&D team has been working on."

Greg Adams eyed the device warily. "Okay, say for a moment I'm impressed. What's a 'Quarnex Battery'?"

Hiram powered the weapon down. "Easier than calling it a 'First Generation Meta-Stable U-238 Nuclear Thermal Decay Power Cell'. Plus, you Council types freak out about anything with the word 'Nuclear' in it."

Tali wondered about the Ghost's meaning, since he seemed to lump Engineer Adams in with the 'Council Types', but clearly didn't consider himself one despite serving the same government.

Jaali drifted back over. "What's so important about the battery?"

Hiram began removing the harness again. "It's our first man-portable solution to the EA's little Anti-Eezo trick." He stated with a cheeky grin.

Tali opened and closed her mouth as she tried to think of what to say in response; then her Omnitool beeped, and she looked down to find that Eve had sent her a message. The message itself seemed to have an almost frantic tone to it, and had been written in _Kheelish_; meaning that it was for her eyes only.

_-Invasive software in Mork navigational and tracking computer; program has uploaded to Normandy; am attempting to purge now-_

Not even a second after Tali had finished reading the message, did an Alarm start blaring in the _Mork_; and judging from the echo coming from the hatch connecting the GST ship to the _Normandy_, it was blaring in both ships.

"_Warning! Unknown vessel on approach, brace for potential defensive maneuvers." _Jokers voice was devoid of all sarcasm, and was deadly serious.

Not even a second later, there was a tremendous _crash!_ That rattled both ships; and now Eve popped up in her Turian form, the four GST troopers flinching back as Eve buzzed in alarm. "They've used a precision EMP, our engines and K-Barriers are down; and they're moving up to start boarding actions." She reported.

Tali looked up to the rest of the people floating with her; and only one word came to her mind, "Well… _Bosh'tet_…"

* * *

**A/N: Something that's never really talked about in Canon or in Fan Works is the fact that Miranda, and Oriana by extension; are theoretically on par with Spartan III's or Captain America in terms of… everything really.**

**Cap for example; the last time he appears in Endgame ****(spoilers)**** he is, biologically, **_**at least**_** 105 to 150 years old. I give that range because 105 is the minimum, and we don't know how long he spent returning the Infinity Stones and Thors Hammer to their correct places; he was 27 biologically at the end of Captain America 1, and by the beginning of endgame he was 39. Without factoring in the amount of time he spent returning the stones, he was 106 by the end after returning and living the rest of his time; and he looked like he was in his 60's or 70's.**

**Ori gets the same treatment as Miranda is Canonically in her mid to late 30's, but looks like she's twenty or even in her teens.**

**And this is something that bothers me because it seems like the ME writers forget some of the stuff they previously established; as, if Oriana was exactly the same as Miranda absent the defect in her Uterus, then there is no way their father would have been able to take her hostage without someone beating Oriana to a pulp and disabling her biotics first.**

**Beyond that, I don't have much to say; most of this chapter was actually Ian's work, as I wasn't sure where to go after the last chapter.**

**What have you got Ian?**

**Ian A/N: I am always happy to link my own little corner of the AGAS universe to the main story, so I am of course tickled to write Retrieval Team Jawa back into the world. That said, they are bringing the 'Big Guns' in the form of Justicar Falil. You can learn more about all of these characters in the GST Side Stories series that compliment the main AGAS work.**

**You will probably have figured out by now that both Pilot and I support the idea of close relations between Quarians and Humans, both political and personal. Nuff Said.**

**Anyway, this is a setup for another grand spectacle of a fight. Strap in and stay tuned dear readers, cause things are gonna get messy!**

**Pilot: Right then, Link to my discord and my writing Challenge is on my profile.**

**NOTICE! GST Side Stories is now on hold until the end of Act 1; you guys will see why when we get there.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you guys think; the feedback helps immensely.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	33. Boarders

The din of alarms and flashing lights added to the already tense atmosphere in the cramped engine compartment of the _Mork._

Hans began silencing alarms as Frans tapped a wall Comm. "Ell-Tee, what's the word?!"

"_Pirates, or raiders of some kind,"_ came Juan's tense voice. "_I don't know how they snuck up on us, but they're latched onto the _Normandy_ like _erizo de la calle _on a _Gringo._" _There was a short pause. _"_Normandy's_ reporting an Eezo suppression device has knocked out their drives, and I can see EVA suits coming over her hull towards us. _Pendejo_, you're weapons free on this one."_

Hiram headed to the wall unit. "El Tee, please confirm 'weapons free'?" There was a general tension from the crew of the _Mork._

"_Weapons Free confirmed. I'm not getting stuck in another box, so fuck this ship."_

Hiram hardened at the declaration. "Copy Ell Tee." He turned to the gathered quarians as Hans and Frans scrambled for one of the lockers, but not the weapon's rack. "You all in Vac Rated suits?"

The _Normandy _contingent watched as a pressure suit with an attached exoskeleton was tossed at Hiram.

"Yeah…" Adams said slowly, eyeing up the BFG-Gluon Gun, whatever it was called; _I'll stick with Gluon Gun, it's easier to say._ Tali decided.

Tali was the first to put it together, "Oh _Kheelah!_ You mean that this Gluon Gun can punch through the ship's hull?" She asked.

Hiram chuffed a laugh. "I punched through the pressure hull of one of these Star-Bugs with a utility knife. This baby here," Hiram patted the weapon as Jaali helped him fit the harness, "could bring down a Jiris Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Won't do anything to the _Normandy's_ hull, but firing it inside would be... ill advised."

Jaali slumped even as she floated, "I…"

"That is… ridiculously powerful as a SAW for lack of a better term." Adams remarked, clearly flabbergasted like the rest of them; but doing a better job at hiding it.

Tali opened her mouth to say something, when they heard; _"Over There! Get 'Em!" _

The crew of the _Mork_ dropped all humor as Hiram keyed his suit's comm. "Jawa to all units: Weapons Code Blue. Stand by for exotics." His faceplate slammed shut as the meter long weapon began to humm and glow an angry red in places. "Stand Clear!" He bellowed, and braced himself against the bulkhead as he aimed the Gluon Gun into the entrance from the _Normandy_ to the _Mork_.

Tali's eyes widened as she spied at least six Mercs storming the hatch, when Hiram disengaged the safety and pulled the trigger on the handhold.

There was a short lived staccato -_crack-crack-crack- _as well as nearly a dozen blueish white flashes from the insane weapon before the corridor connecting engineering and the rest of the ship burst. Most of the mercs were blown out into space, though one seemed to _evaporate_ in a blue flash_._

"Jawa to all units, be advised hostiles have biotics with them. Moving to Parasite ship. How copy?"

Tali and the other's watched as _Jawa_, the quirky delivery technicians who joked with the Ghosts and were almost gentle with the Quarians, dispassionately armed up and began space-walking to the raider ship.

Tali shared a look with Jaali, Adams, and Eve and shrugged; quickly taking charge of the situation, "Alright, Eve go back to the _Normandy_ and make sure your mom knows it's us out there; Jaali, stay close to me and Adams and try and keep your head down, got it?" She asked.

"G-g-got it."

Tali nodded, even as Eve disappeared and left her mobile emitter behind; Adams grabbing it and attaching it to his space suit. "Alright then, let's get a move on shall we?"

* * *

San was terrified beyond all reasonable imagination.

Yes, he had been training under Garrus to toughen up and all that; but there was a very big difference between training, and actual Close Quarters Combat. Still, at least he had the Marines, both his own and the Normandy's garrison; which meant that he wouldn't be totally defenseless.

"_Oh Kheelah… Oh Kheelah… _Ancestors protect us, please protect us." Lia was whispering desperately next to him, holding Fyodor close to her even as the boy trembled in her arms.

San adjusted his grip on the 'borrowed' shotgun he had taken from the Weapons Storage; and looked up at the ME Core support trusses, and he immediately recalled the first day he had met the Major and the Commander. "Sergeant!" San exclaimed, and Sergeant 'Reegar turned from one of the hallways to look at him. San immediately pointed up to the Support Trusses, "Sir! I can hide up there and pick off enemies as they come into the room."

He didn't waste his words, knowing that they were short on time; he could already hear the thudding footsteps of the pirates approaching fast. To the Sergeants credit, he immediately saw what San was talking about; and while he didn't like it, he knew he needed everything he could get.

"Get up there! Fast!" He snapped, while Gunny Williams shot a concerned look to both of them.

San scrambled as fast as his legs could carry him, squeezing along the maintenance shaft; and then nesting himself in between the Truss and the Bulkhead, making sure to brace himself properly so he didn't fall by accident.

He was not a second too late, as the hatch down the hall was blown open; flying down the hall into the defensive barricades.

Immediately, uniformed and armored Mercenaries poured through the breach, only to be cut down en-masse by a hail of gunfire; both standard Mass Effected Slugs, and the Chemical based weaponry favored by the Ghosts handed out to the rest of the crew.

Still... it was a total mess, and San couldn't believe the insanity in which everything quickly devolved into; he also couldn't believe at how fanatically the Mercs seemed to charge into the Marines rifle fire.

"_San! Please be careful!" _He had to resist the urge to flinch at Eve's voice suddenly bellowing in his ear; remembering the Majors advice to him the last time he had been caught hiding up in the Truss.

He didn't reply even though he desperately wanted to, and shifted his aim towards what appeared to be the leader of the Mercenaries. San took a breath, then fired; grunting in surprise at the kick in his shoulder. It was a far different experience actually firing a weapon at a _person_ as opposed to a target or hologram.

He assumed he must have blinked, because it looked as if the Merc leader had simply disappeared. A shift in the commotion drew his attention to where some of the Mercs were dragging a body with a shattered and smoldering armored K-Barrier breastplate. His moment of triumph was marred by the fact that several mercs were now aiming at him.

There was no real way for him to dodge, and hiding would be meaningless in the cable truss, so he did the only thing he could: he opened fire. Two Mercs collapsed under sustained fire, but the third managed to use one of her compatriots as a shield long enough to line up a shot.

San felt at first like he'd been punched in the gut, then came the searing cold sensation as the coolant pipe he was laying on began venting into his abdomen.

"_NO!"_ San blinked dumbly as Eve suddenly appeared in front of him in her Quarian form, blowing a bright sapphire blue; meaning she was using her 'Biotic Abilities'. _"YOU WILL NOT HARM THEM!" _She roared at the stunned Merc's even as she _pulled_ all of their weapons out of their hands; then sealed the hatchway behind them.

"Shit!"

"It's Stuck!"

"Pull it!"

All the Mercs started yelling and banging on the hatch, while Eve just flicked her wrist; and the lights died in the hallway, all except for her own baleful glow. Her form became slightly indistinct, though the shape remained roughly humanoid. Then her fingers fused and stretched into wickedly curved orange blades as she began her advance on the trapped mercenaries.

"Holy Jesus!"

"It's an actual Ghost!"

"Fucking Open it!"

Eve just stalked forward slowly, angrily glaring at the Mercs; and San was so entranced by what was unfolding in front of him, he didn't even notice as Sergeant 'Reegar and Gunny Williams rushed up to him and began treating his injuries with Medi-Gel. He _did_ notice that no one was shooting either; all of them were staring at Eve and the terrified Mercs in wonder and worry.

At least two thirds of the Mercs seemed to remember that they also had pistols; and all drew them and began firing at Eve, and Eve alone. The AI could have simply turned intangible and let the rounds pass through; but she didn't, and instead used her new sword hands to _deflect_ the slugs into the Bulkhead or back towards the Mercs.

Some fell from the slugs, and one of them was suddenly yanked up to the ceiling; stuck to it for a moment, before being bisected by one of the blades, at which point Eve let him fall. Then the blade on her left arm reformed into her hand, and she closed it into a fist and yanked it backwards; and in turn the pistols in the few standing Mercs were yanked away from them.

"You have come into my home," she continued her slow advance on the invaders, "my sanctuary," her glow began to slowly increase as she backed the survivors into a corner, "into my very body and _harmed those I cherish!"_

San and the rest of the crew could now feel the heat radiating off of Eve's Omni-projection, as if she had integrated an incendiary mod for a ME weapon and was just projecting it, causing the paint and insulation on the corridor to smolder.

"_**BURN!"**_

And so they did.

* * *

Ori scrambled out of the shower and pulled on her pajama bottoms and a tank top; the only two articles of clothing she could find nearby as the alarms blared throughout the ship. Her hair dripping wet, she rushed out of the small bathroom and into her room proper; where Freya sat on their bed in her onesie, looking up at the red running lights with fear as darkness began to settle onto the ship.

Of course, the darkness was nothing to Oriana; as she could see as clearly as if it were noon on earth.

Ignoring the fact that her clothes were practically see-through now thanks to her haste to get out of the shower; Ori grabbed Freya and held her baby sister close to her chest, Freya's toddler hands and arms instinctively wrapping themselves around Ori's neck.

"Ori! 'M scared!" Freya exclaimed, her mop of raven black hair standing out in the shadowed lighting; her eyes watering and trailing down her light brown skin.

"It's okay sweetie, I'm here." Ori replied in a whisper, quickly opening her cabin door to see the ship's personnel scrambling into defensive positions. Immediately recognizing that their cabin would be caught in potential crossfire, Ori took off down the hall; ignoring the surprised shouts of the other crew members as she bulled through them, holding Freya tightly as she did so.

Heading to the one place she could think of, Ori burst into the medical bay; seeing Dr. Chakwas restraining Agent Brooks, making sure the naked woman was properly strapped to the bed.

"What's going on?!" Ori demanded breathlessly.

The Doctor opened her mouth to speak, but the IAA agent just gave a dark chuckle; looking incredibly sinister and dangerous in the dim lighting, in spite of the fact that she was restrained and naked. "My employers have probably come to rescue me, and to make sure both of you _freaks_!" She hissed and pointed at Ori and Freya with a finger, "are properly tested and used."

Chakwas frowned heavily while Oriana fought down a growl of anger as her parents death came roaring to the forefront of her mind; when the intercom blared, _"Dr. Chakwas! Please report to the Bridge Immediately!"_

The Doctor and Ori exchanged a look, and Ori nodded, "Go, I took care of her once already." She said.

The doctor looked distressed, but turned towards the hatch anyway. "Eve," she waited for a blinking indicator on the wall comm panel, "notify the bridge the _moment _any non-authorized personnel try to enter the medical center."

A double blink indicated the AI's acknowledgement, and Karen headed out. She turned back for one moment as she left. "I'm sealing the hatch behind me. Stay put, stay hidden, and keep that," she waved a hand towards the IAA agent, "_creature_ muzzled. If she's right and they are here for her, we don't need her yelling and bringing them down on top of you."

Ori nodded while rocking Freya as the Doctor shut the hatch. A solid _-thunk-_ let her know the hatch was dogged down.

"Poor little girl," the restrained agent sneered from her bed, "all you're able to do is cower in thmphmh-"

Her jeering was cut short as Oriana stuffed a roll of medical gauze in her mouth.

Ori opened her mouth to sneer some insults back at the restrained Agent, even as the gunshots worked their way closer; then her superhuman hearing picked up something that made her blood run cold. _"Setting a breaching charge!"_

"Shit!" Ori swore, rushing over to the bed she had set Freya down on and quickly picked up the little toddler; who immediately began to whine at being woken up again.

"Ori, 'm tired…" Freya mumbled, even as Oriana moved as fast as her legs could carry her over to the closet; pulling it open frantically and began tossing the towels and hospital gowns out to make room for Freya.

"_Preparing to Breach!"_

Oriana quickly made a makeshift bed out of the towels and set Freya down on it; who began to whine again, "Oriiiiii, this feels weird…" She complained.

Ori knew that she had to work faster, "Freya listen to me, I love you so much okay? I need you to be quiet for me, no matter what happens, do you think you can do that for me?" She asked, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

"But Ori…" Freya whimpered, her lip quivering as her own eyes began to well up with tears.

"Please Freya sweetie? If not for me then for mommy and daddy." She whispered.

"...'k…" Ori smiled and quickly inputted several commands into her omnitool; closing the closet door, and diving behind Dr. Chakwas' desk as the breaching charge went off.

_BOOOM!_

Ori yelped as she held her ringing ears, even as she tried to stand; only to immediately fall over again, the concussive wave having severely disoriented her. Still, the ringing was quick to go away; but not quick enough for Ori to get her bearings back in time before a rough hand grabbed her by the hair and yanked her backwards.

Ori yelped in pain, and grabbed the hand even as she was dragged backward; _very_ much aware of the five or six guns pointed at her head and chest. "Got one of the secondary objectives." She heard a voice say.

"Good, search for the other; the boss wants both of them, though he said he didn't mind if _this _one was… used…" She heard another say, and had to fight down a snarl at the round of cruel chuckles that resounded at the apparent leader's words. "Maybe she knows where the Primary objective is? Don't you?" She looked up to see a handsome but cruel face staring back at her; eyeing up her body before focusing on her eyes, "Tell me or don't tell me; it doesn't matter, cause I'll have you either way later."

She felt a spike of fear run through her, despite her confidence that she could overwhelm these men and women in front of her. She was saved from responding when she heard a voice shout, "In here you fuckin' apes! Worry about fucking her later, get me out of here, and get me some clothes!"

One of the men stayed focused on her, but the rest went to go take care of Brooks and search the room; allowing Ori to breath semi-easier, at least until she heard one of the Mercs walk over to the closet and open it.

"Hey! We got a toddler here!" The Merc that had opened it shouted, and Ori's heart dropped as she realized that they had found Freya. "What should we do with her?" The Merc asked, even as Oriana felt her heart begin to beat faster and faster.

"Bring her of course! The boss said no survivors excep-"_CRACK!_ The squad leaders neck snapped as Ori clenched her fist, before she Biotically _pulled_ the desk out of the Deck and _threw_ it into one of the Mercs by the door.

Both men's Biomonitors went off, like the Civil Protection units on Illium.

_BoooWheeep! _"Shit!" A third Merc Screamed as Ori rushed forward, faster than the man could perceive beyond seeing a pale pink and black blur; and she quickly punched him in the chest, stopping his heart and shattering his sternum.

Another dead ringer sounded in the medbay, just as another Merc rounded the main hatchway; already randomly spraying to try and eliminate the unknown threat that had been killing her comrades.

One of the slugs hit Agent Brooks right between the eyes from where the naked and cuffed agent sat; and she slumped over dead, her head steaming as Ori blankly realized that the Merc was using incendiary upgrades.

Oriana processed this all in the span of milliseconds; even as another slug grazed her tank top and her pajama pants, both Articles of clothing immediately catching fire. Not even hesitating a second, Ori ripped both her burning tank top and pajama bottoms off and tossed them aside, even as she grabbed a pencil off a nearby desk and threw it as hard as she could before kicking off the wall with her bare feet; cursing the whole while that she had been in her night clothes when everything had kicked off.

The Merc shrieked in terror as the pencil landed _eraser_ first, and still managed to stick into her visor; sending a spider web of cracks outward, before Ori's foot crashed into her stomach. The Merc went sailing backwards and crashed into the bulkhead, denting it; while the force of the impact scramble egged her brain.

Another Dead Man's chime sounded, and three Mercs down the hall turned to see Ori jump back inside the medbay. "Sir! We got a crazy naked lady fucking us up in hand to hand! We think it's the chick that we were sent to capture! Moving to-" _WHAP!_

The leader's head snapped to the side as a metal bar slammed into the side of his head, crushing his helmet and skull instantly. Even as he went sailing sideways, Ori grabbed his rifle out of his lifeless hands; only to discover to her silent horror that it was biometrically locked.

Resisting the urge to scream in frustration, She threw the rifle like a spear into the second Merc storming into the room; not even bothering with her Biotics now, as she was too unskilled in them to wield them properly, and was going off of pure instinct.

It was just another example of her strength that the Rifle actually triggered the K-Barriers due to the speed it was moving; and it was a testament to her instincts and her speed that it was only a half second after the rifle staggered the Merc, did the woman he had reported crashed into him.

Ori shoulder checked the Merc, sending him flying into the Bulkhead of the medical bay; denting the wall, but miraculously not killing him. It didn't matter though, as she immediately grabbed the man and held him in front of her; the weight barely registering as the third Merc immediately lifted his own Assault Rifle and fired.

The K-Barriers and Armor of her human shield held as Ori charged forward with a growl.

The Third Merc was the biggest out of all of them, and had an Exo-skelaton on his suit; and it was a testament to its effectiveness and the man's own skill that he was able to restrain Oriana.

For a few seconds anyway, before she immediately headbutted the Merc; shattering his Visor, quickly Judo flipping him over her shoulder and smashing her bare foot into his chest, denting the Armor.

The man lay on the deck for a moment; stunned at both the strength this woman exhibited, and the fact that he was getting an up close look at the woman in her state of nature, before he rallied and swept her legs out from under her. Or at least he tried to, as one: Oriana immediately adjusted to the attempt to knock her off her feet, though she did step off the man to keep that balance.

And two: Oriana's bones may not have been made of metal or ceramics, but they may as well have been; as the Merc snarled in pain and frustration, but nonetheless took the opportunity to kick Oriana in the chest and send her staggering backwards slightly.

He immediately drew a knife and sprang up to his feet, still managing to tower over the woman they had been sent to capture; and immediately slashed his knife at her.

Ori reacted on instinct again, stepping inside of the man's furious slash; and grabbing hold of his arm for a moment, before he took her by surprise and tried to punch her in the throat. Her reaction time again saved her from immediate injury, but the Merc had been counting on just that thing; and tossed the knife from his captured hand to his free one.

He slashed downward, but Ori caught the man's arm with an animalistic growl; and began to squeeze her hand into the Mercs left arm, the one now holding the knife, while activating her Biotics.

_He tried to hurt Freya!_ She thought in fury, and the Merc hissed in pain as sparks began to shoot out from his Exo-Skeleton.

_Shink!_

Ori gasped in surprise and pain, while the Merc grinned vindictively, and Ori glanced over to her right shoulder, stupidly realizing that the man had been using a ballistic knife rather than a standard knife.

She growled as her shock and pain turned to Anger, and she headbutted the Merc again; this time breaking his nose, while she followed up with a kick to the groin. The man's Armor did little as Ori's kick crushed his genitals and shattered his pelvis; even as she furiously bit down a scream of pain as she pulled the knife out of her shoulder, checking to make sure there was no major damage.

Satisfied, she threw the knife full force into the Merc; aiming for his chest as she did so.

It landed on its handle, but that didn't matter; as the force caved in the Mercs already damaged chest armor, the force of the blow stopping his heart. Oriana grinned wolfishly for a moment, before three more mercs came down the hall; weapons raised, "Put your hands in-"

Ori didn't let them finish as she slashed her arm and threw a Biotic warp at the Mercs.

The three men fell to the ground, but quickly tried to pick themselves up; now ready to kill the target that they had been sent to capture. But they never got the chance, as Lt. Commander Shepard blew each of their heads off with easy precision; Justicar Falil close behind, while Col slipped in between them.

He rushed past Oriana, much to her surprise; and instead went straight to Freya, who she only just now realized was wailing with terror.

She turned to look at her baby sister and took a step towards her, but stopped and winced as she felt the pain in her leg from the Mercs failed leg sweep start to catch up with her. In fact a lot of injuries she had not been aware of began to catch up with her; most of them nicks and bruises.

Shepard and Falil for their parts were utterly stunned at the sight of the naked teenager covered in ME Slug grazes, burns from her clothing catching fire, the shoulder stab from the ballistic knife, and the bruises already forming on her feet and fists still standing tall and strong; barely even winded at all.

Ori blinked as she turned to look over at Col and Freya, her Quarian friend not looking at her due to her nudity; and Freya burying her face in Cols chest as the events playing out around her began dredging up her memories of that terrible day back on Feros.

Ori turned back to the Commander, who had lowered her weapon and was slowly walking forward with a khaki jumpsuit; which Ori didn't remember the Commander grabbing. Blinking again she asked blankly, "Is that for me?" Not even realizing that her hands and legs were shaking as the adrenaline began to drain away. "No thanks… I feel a little hot at the moment…" She said slowly, bracing herself against one of the beds; which she realized had a dead body on it.

"Ori…" Shepard started, walking up to the teen; "You need to put this on so you can be decent." She reiterated to the girl, gently setting a hand on the trembling teen.

The girl shivered but nodded and started to dress herself; and Jane stood up and motioned towards a pair of marines who brought up the rear. "Police this mess, then meet up with Gunny Williams' team. The Marines snapped salutes and began moving corpses to one side of the room.

Once most of the offending reminders were off to one side, and a sheet was thrown over the former IAA agent, Jane turned back to Oriana. "Let me know when you are ready; I'll send Col with you to the CIC while we finish up here." She squeezed Ori's shoulder. "I wish you hadn't needed to do this, but I'm proud of how you stepped up. You did good."

Ori nodded again while looking at the floor. Once she was dressed and out of the room, Jane keyed her Comm. "This is Normandy-Actual to all units: report on status, over."

* * *

I couldn't keep the scowl off of my face as I watched two Mercs quickly peek their heads out and duck back down behind cover. "Hiram, Two Tangos on your ten; flushing them out." I stated coldly.

The second he'd confirmed my callout; I pulled out a Frag, yanked out the pin, and Baseball pitched it behind the crates the two Mercs had been hiding behind. Both men yelped and came out from behind the crate guns blazing; only to get vaporized by Hiram's Gluon Gun.

"Holy Jesus Hanging on the Cross Christ, Nomad you never told me the Gluon Gun did _that_!" Jane exclaimed.

I just shot her a dirty look, and she had the decency to look a little ashamed at how she'd taken the lord's name in vain; Shaking my head, I returned my attention back to the hall leading to the Pirate ship's bridge. "Archer, take the rest of Kingslayer and Jawa and push forward to the Bridge." I ordered coldly.

"Copy that Boss." She replied quietly, quickly moving forward with the other Ghosts and Troopers; clearing each of the rooms as they went.

I didn't really pay much attention beyond keeping an eye on it to make sure they didn't get flanked; my main focus was on Shepard, even as she stated in a tired voice, "You know, I think you should have your callsign changed to Rasputin; you're not a monk or priest of any kind and yet you're devout enough to be one. And to top it off you have survived far more than the real Rasputin ever did."

She was only half joking, and I do admit; I liked the ring of it, "Hmph…" Of course, I would never tell her that.

Chakwas rolled her eyes as she put dollops of medigel on the grazes from the ME Slugs on my arms; having already removed the knife in my shoulder. Internally I was still fuming over that, _motherfucking ballistic knife; should have seen that coming._ I thought to myself.

After a moment, I just said; "Status on the rest of the ship? I saw the massacre in the Medbay on the way out…" I trailed off, even as I remembered all the corpses shoved into the corners of the place.

I hadn't wanted to think about it, but Oriana Irwin was very clearly Oriana Lawson; and her genetic augmentations apparently put her on par with a motherfucking Spartan from Halo. I had read the books, how The Master Chief had killed four ODST's as a _kid_ in a boxing fight.

Oriana had killed at least six heavily armed Mercenaries stark naked, and beyond a few grazes and a knife stab from a ballistic knife; in the exact same manner I had been stabbed, she had been largely unharmed. I blinked as I quickly refocused on Shepard as she finally got around to answering my Question; and I immediately noted that she seemed equally unnerved, having been the one to find Oriana in the middle of the chaos.

I was just glad that Col had been able to calm Freya down, since Oriana had clearly not been any shape to do so.

"The rest of the ship is secure. I have Eve, Miss 'Zorah and Chief Adams sweeping the ship for more malicious software or hardware, and Sergeants 'Reegar and Williams' Marines sweeping the ship for stragglers." She peeked around the corner of the corridor. "The _Mork_ is a loss, though some parts might be salvageable."

I gave a tired chuckle, "That's the Gluon Gun for you, it vaporizes everything it touches; Hiram and I designed it specifically for clearing infantry." I gave a sad look around the melted remnants of the ship, "Of course, I think it _maybe_ should have been a mounted gun the more I think about it; but you can't argue the effectiveness… _I_ can't survive getting hit by it, so that speaks to its effectiveness." I said with very obvious sarcasm.

"_Normandy-Actual, this is Jawa-Two. We have a few crew left cornered in the bridge. Jawas Three and Four are keeping the engines offline for now, but they can't keep that up for much longer. Permission to clear the bridge before we're all sent on a one-way trip?"_

Neither of us said anything at the moment, then I very slowly shook my head; "Eve can get the data off the ship." I said slowly. "No mercy, you saw how holding Agent Brooks went."

Shepard stared at me even as Chakwas tutted slightly, and then she slowly put a hand up to her ear; "Jawa-Two; this is Normandy-Actual, Rasputin and I are giving you the go ahead. Vaporize the bastards."

"_Jawa Two copies. Break out the sun screen." _

The sound of Hiram's Gluon Gun sounded again, though it seemed _off._ When Jane and I arrived at the hatch leading to the bridge, we found it shut, though the metal appeared discolored and slightly warped.

"The brother's just confirmed, no lifesigns on the bridge." I noted the morbidly curious looks being sent Hiram's way. "It's a high energy particle accelerator; I can adjust when and where the Ions dump their energy as radiation. In this case, just the other side of the hatch." He let the weapon go, and the armature retracted it onto his pack. "I'd advise against going in there for at least two, maybe three years."

Jane just shook her head again, "Ras… you have some of the most strangely brilliant friends I've ever met." She stated simply.

I shrugged, even as Everyone looked confused; "Ras?" Hiram asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"She wants revenge for being designated Uber; so she's trying out Rasputin for me to see if it sticks." I grumbled.

Everyone stared for a moment, then Colt began nodding; "Yeah… Yeah Rasputin fits you better than Nomad Boss; considering that you've been stabbed, shot, cut, beaten, drowned, and crashed throughout your career. The _real_ Rasputin wasn't as lucky." He joked.

Phil grunted, "Hm… you're not a real monk like him; and yet just as religious as one, like him."

"Maybe you can get burned, hanged, and poisoned added to the list by the time your career's up." Archer added.

I just glared at them for a moment, before muttering "I hate all of you…"

A voice began softly singing from the back of the group.

"_Ra Ra Rasputin_

_Maryland's greatest Love-machine"_

"Finish that song, and I'll make sure you and Kala ain't gonna have any kids naturally."

* * *

Tali absently dropped the now deactivated rifle into the ever growing pile.

She closed her eyes as she remembered first walking into the corridor; the burnt out corpses hacked to bits, the very clear and obvious damage dealt by Eve's fake Biotics. It had become the standing rule over the past day, if you saw something out of place, you put it back; and if you found evidence, it got tossed into the evidence pile for your section.

Opening her eyes again, she plastered on a fake smile as she walked into the Engineering room; stepping up to the Quarians alcove where all the rest of her kin were gathered. She didn't know Col as well as the others, having spent less time in engineering than the rest; but he was a good man and someone always willing to listen to you.

Still, she felt a heavy sense of melancholy overtaking her as she walked up to the younger Pilgrim; the others patting him on the shoulder and wishing him well.

In a few hours, he would be gone; leaving with that woman and her sister.

She wanted to accuse him of going through a 'Lust-Bond', but after reviewing the footage and hearing him talk about it; it was clear that Col had reached this decision _long_ before he had even met Oriana, and she had simply been the catalyst that pushed him into acting on it.

Even as she said her own goodbye, not as tearstriken as the other females but still saddened, she couldn't help but think that he would be in good hands; the feat of strength Oriana had performed in the medbay during the attack was something that had impressed even Wrex.

Now with her "goodbye and good luck" said, she had more important matters at the moment; and it involved Eve and the other GST members.

After a moment, she walked into what used to be Oriana's temporary quarters; all of the teens' clothing and scant belongings having already been removed from the room. Tali quickly ran a scan to make sure neither the IAA or the Ghosts had planted bugs in the room, before hitting the call function on her Omnitool; "Commander, Garrus, Eve, could all of you meet me in our former guests room? I need to talk to you in private." she said.

She got a couple of flashes, confirming that they would come as soon as they could. Tali just sighed, if only San had not been injured; then she could get a bigger picture as opposed to just what Eve knew.

She quickly peeked outside, and breathed a small sigh of relief that Nomad and his team seemed to be busy practicing with those new 'Light-Swords'; which seemed to be some kind of omniblade stuffed into a handle.

Lee was using what he called a 'Officers Cavalry Saber', against his friend Hiram who was using what he had called a 'Broadsword'. Most of 1-4-1 and off duty crew members had come to watch; and Tali couldn't help but feel a little impressed that Hiram, despite being a 'non-combatant' in the GST, seemed to be holding his own against the Major quite well in their little duel.

Tali shifted her glance, and saw Garrus and Jane making their way around the edges of the crowd towards where she was currently hidden; and Tali quickly ducked back inside before one of the Ghosts or GST members spotted her.

She didn't have long to wait for the others to arrive. Eve was the last to blink into the room.

"Eve, could you secure the room so nobody can intrude or listen in?" Tali quickly asked, casting a nervous glance at the door; feeling in her gut that the Ghosts knew they were meeting together. She tried to banish the feeling, but it just wouldn't go away; which only increased her unease.

Eve looked at her mom and dad before a barrier blinked over the hatch, and she quickly transformed into her Turian form; which Tali knew was a way to help Eve conceal how she was feeling, as Only Garrus would really know how to read her.

Jane narrowed her eyes before turning her attention to Tali; who immediately wrung her hands nervously as Jane asked, "Alright Tali… What is this about?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It's about the Ghosts; all of them, not just Lee's team. You remember while we were all on the Citadel last, Eve encountered _something_?"

Eve shuddered and buzzed in distress at the reminder, while Garrus narrowed his eyes while setting a reassuring hand on the AI's shoulder.

Tali winced at the child's and parent's distress, but shouldered through. "While we were on the _Mork, _she picked up the same energy coming from the Jawa team members."

Garrus hugged Eve a little tighter. "Maybe she's discovered the frequency at which crazy people operate? I don't know how else to describe whatever prompted the snarky one, Hiram, to create a nuclear powered auto plasma cannon. Sergeant Reegar asked how it worked. I was expecting a full on state secrets act lecture; instead, he field stripped it on the spot and walked everyone through every bit of it. He was just happy to have a chance to share."

"Or use an omni-blade program to make a sword of all things." Jane moved to sit with her mate and daughter. "He got into a three-way debate with Wrex and Aethyta on the merits of certain melee weapon designs in certain situations." She gave a cross-eyed look at nothing. "He commandeered the machine shop omni fabricators and cranked out a suit of ancient Greek armor and some kind of spear designed by one of the GST's own Biotics for Aethyta, and a medieval hammer/spear/pickaxe thing using the same basic design for Wrex. They are on strict orders to _not_ use them on the ship."

"He and the Major gave Oriana a copy of the Major's sword; a 1850 infantry officers saber if I recall." Eve remarked absently, "and after some convincing from Ori and Freya, Col relented and got something called a Falchion. They didn't even ask for anything in return, although the Major did grumble that he should open _another_ business selling them on the market." She buzzed slightly, which Tali recognized as a light laugh tinged with unease.

Garrus nodded, "That's why those two are dueling you know, to teach Ms. Irwin and Col how to properly use their weapons without killing themselves; of course it helps that the training mode doesn't do anything more than sting." He pointed out.

Tali closed her eyes and sighed; "We're getting off track." She pointed out, "_what_ is that energy that Eve picked up?" she asked, adjusting her _Seemas_ before crossing her arms; feeling unease settle on the group.

Eve shifted again, flickering in unease. "I don't know, but everyone we've met who is from this GST has that energy coming off of them. Jawa's are all about the same level; but Lee's is, I don't know, less? More decayed? The Batarian Obram gave energy off at about the same level as the rest of Kingslayer. I reviewed my internal sensor data from when Lee brought June and Dr. 'Lorah onboard to 'show them where he worked'; June doesn't have it, but Ms. Ziva does."

"And the cure is Dr. Lorah's project," Tali pointed out, "just like the Beowulf rifles and tactics are Lee's, and all the crazy things Jawa keeps bringing over. It's like everyone who has this energy thinks _differently_; like they see the world from a different angle than everyone else who lives here."

Jane hugged her daughter tight. "Like they know something we don't, and won't or can't tell us what it is or why." She looked over at Garrus. "I cornered Hiram that first time, after our first encounter with the _Varren_ and asked him just that. He intimated that he, and everyone else in the GST were under a Gag order of some kind, but that as a group, they trusted _me_ implicitly."

She leaned in as Garrus pulled her in a little closer. "I've had people look at me like some kind of larger than life sports hero or action star, but the level of faith they put in me, in all of us, is downright terrifying." She looked Tali in the eyes. "They all _knew_, on the bridge while we were trying to figure out how to track the Varen; they _knew_ you were onto something and were just waiting for you to say it."

"It's like… they know how things will occur…" Tali mused, "How we will react to something."

Eve flickered again, and the three adults looked at her in concern; before she went solid with a blank look on her face, "I found something…" She said, before disappearing for a moment; and then Tali jumped as Oriana's room went black, replaced with what looked like a massive chamber. Swirling globes of light orbited around a central point. When one brushed against any of them, there was a flash and a sense of potential; moments that never were or were not yet.

Tali staggered slightly, and she suddenly looked like a regular Quarian in her suit; with one notable exception, Her stomach was very round with Child.

Garrus touched one, and blinked as a rugged, bearded man took his place for a millisecond.

Jane blinked, as her Turian disguise flared into place for a moment; only it looked, and more importantly felt, real.

Then the Ghosts and other 1-4-1 members began flashing by in the room; August wearing what looked like an old 21st century American Airforce Uniform, then a Nazi SS uniform, then an American Civil War Union Officer uniform. Archer as a Cherokee warrior, a simple farmer, a drug dealer. Colt as an American Marine, a pilot, a swamp dweller. Phil in a Soviet NKVD/KGB uniform, a ruthless gangster, a sharp dressed politician.

It moved by so fast that Tali wasn't even sure she saw them at all, but then she did see them.

"This is what I feel off of all of them." Eve's voice came from the center of the kaleidoscope, though it was older somehow, and more laden with wisdom than the child had ever possessed. "I've managed to filter out some of the data from my encounter with the _Strange Man_, and this is what I feel; infinite possibilities barely contained in limiting flesh."

The image collapsed back into Eve, though she had taken a smaller quarian form. "It's too much! I can't hold it and it just slips away and all I have left is that terrible perfect grin!"

Jane immediately pulled Eve into a hug, but neither Garrus or Jane could bring themselves to move for a long moment; Tali looked down at her stomach, feeling the phantom pains of pregnancy to her amazement. "Did… did the camera's record what we… and everyone else looked like when they were flashing by? I didn't get the best look at them and only caught a few." She said slowly, still not quite processing what had just occurred.

Garrus blinked, then walked over to the nearby control panel and typed a few commands; then gave a slightly strained smile, "We're in luck, it captured all of it."

Jane hung her head in mental exhaustion. "Any other dark and terrible secrets I should know about?"

Eve flickered again, and a canned electronic voice came over the internal comms. "_Half the payment in advance, as promised. The other half when, and _only_ when you get the job done and bring back confirmation."_

A second, gruff voice came on. "_I get offing the Spook-chick and the Asari, and maybe the transport crew. But why capture the brat and not just space her like the rest?"_

"_Because that is what our contract stipulates, just as it stipulates '_No Questions Asked'_. If this is beyond your willingness or capabilities, then I will find another contractor, and _you_ will be on the work order. Understood?"_

As the incriminating dialogue played out, a holographic file appeared in the center of the room, showing Brooks, Justicar Falil and all of Jawa with the word, 'Terminate on sight' overlaid on top.

It also showed Oriana and Freya with the words 'Capture and return alive'.

* * *

**Pilot A/N: Things move fast here, but we're getting close to the end of Act One here guys; and I will admit I'm getting a little excited.**

**The Oriana fight, and Eve going Darth Vader Rogue One on the mercs were my favorite sections to write. For Eve, it was to demonstrate just how capable and terrifying an AI like her can be when used in combat and properly motivated.**

**For Oriana, it's to show just how bad fighting a superhuman will go for you when you make even the slightest mistake. As I explained previously, Oriana is pretty much the equivalent to Captain America in terms of strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, healing, and all the other stuff involved. She was able to take out the Mercs with nothing but her bare and bloody hands while they had armor, knives, guns and top of the line equipment.**

**Beyond that, I don't have much to say; How 'bout you Ian?**

**Ian A/N: I am biased to enjoying the chance to write Hiram again, but for me the best part was the end; the growing realization that there is something **_**different**_** about the members of the GST.**

**Other than that, this was a delightful set of action set pieces. The next few chapters are going to be a bit of a roller-coaster, so buckle in and stay tuned!**

**Pilot: Right then, hope you all enjoyed the chapter.**

**Leave a review and tell us what you guys think, the feedback helps a lot.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	34. Answers

It was a sad goodbye for everyone, as Jane had admittedly grown a little attached to Oriana and Freya. And of course, saying goodbye to a long standing crewmate such as Col was always heartbreaking for a sailor.

Lee and the Ghosts seemed to be a little stressed, Lee perhaps being the worst example of it; as Jane noted that he looked ten years older, and had grey streaks in his mutton chops and his close cropped hair that had not been there last night.

It was clear that everyone else had noticed it as well, but no one brought it up.

Jane returned her attention back to the departing crowd, Jawa and Justicar Falil having already disappeared into the crowds; and most of the crew had returned to their tasks and stations. The only exceptions were the Quarians, the males all patting Col on the shoulders; while all the Females gave him quick hugs.

She smiled at how Col and all the females seemed almost embarrassed at the contact; but it was still a good step in the right direction if they were willing to touch each other more openly and less romantically now.

Then Col stepped back, and waved; and all the Quarians quickly dispersed back to the ship.

The pilgrim watched them go, then turned to Jane and August; the last two crewmembers left that had yet to return to their duties. "Jane'Shepard vas Normandy, August'Lee nar Maryland; I thank you for the opportunities and help that you have given me over this past year. I hope to repay you someday." He said, bowing to both of them.

Lee simply smiled, and stepped up to Col; setting a hand on his shoulder, "Kid, if you ever need a place to stay or some work that pays; just contact me, and we'll work it out." He said, sounding more like an older brother than anything else; even as the Major sent Col his contact information.

Jane then added, "If you ever get in trouble, don't hesitate to ask for help." making sure to add her own contact information.

Col bowed again, then stepped back and stumbled in surprise as Oriana handed him Freya; before the teen stepped forward. "Thank you…" was all she said to the Ghost, putting a hand on the Omni-Sword that August had given her.

Lee nodded in kind, and sent her his contact info; before turning on his heel and walking back into the ship. Jane turned and said, "Oh August, please gather 1-4-1 in the briefing room for me. We need to talk about something important we've found."

The Ghost blinked, then nodded and continued inside.

Jane turned to Oriana, and the teens mouth moved for a few moments; then she launched herself forward and pulled Jane into a bone crushing hug, one she gladly returned. "Don't hesitate to call if you want to talk; I'll be listening." Jane whispered.

"I will, don't worry." Ori whispered back; before releasing Jane and giving a small giggle, "We'll see you later Jane." She said.

"Bye!" Freya exclaimed as Col handed her off to Ori.

"Goodbye Commander."

Jane waved at them, "Goodbye, and good luck." Was all she said; even as the engines began to warm up for take off.

She turned and walked up the ramp, the exit closing behind her; _now then… _She thought, _time to see what the Ghosts know and don't know._

* * *

As Eve pulled up the footage and pictures of the strange man; Jane wondered if it had been a good idea to wait until after Jawa, Falil, Oriana, and Col were gone to grill the Ghosts.

As it was, Lee stared at Jane, his face was white as a sheet of paper; while the other Ghosts looked at the strange man with expressions of sheer terror. Jane knew that _whoever_ this person was; he was not something to be taken lightly.

"No… no-no-no; he _can't _be here…" Lee rasped, slowly standing and walking up to the holographic image of the strange man.

"Hmph… so he's the one that's got your tails in a twist. What is he, another traitor?" Wrex grumbled.

Aethyta narrowed her eyes and nodded, "He doesn't look like much, even if whatever tech he has on him is advanced."

"He is not human, and he's not one of us." Lee hissed, almost in a trance, before he shook himself and seemed to regain control of himself; and he turned and gave Wrex and Aethyta a glare that could have melted titanium. "Do _not_ underestimate him." He snarled, catching everyone off guard; "If that is who I think, then his being here might as well be an omen of the End Times."

Jane slowly stood, her alarm growing by the second; as it was clear that August and his fellow Ghosts knew this man, even as her mind spun in circles trying to comprehend what he said. "August… who is this man; more importantly, who are _you_?" here, she gestured to the other Ghosts who seemed to be similarly cowed.

Lee gave a pained look to Shepard. She was once again reminded of the time she cornered Hiram in the vehicle bay. _What is it about that question that upsets them so much?_

"Clear the deck." Lee's voice was soft, but deadly serious. There were the beginnings of arguments from the rest of 1-4-1 until August turned to look at them. There were no words to describe the pain and deadly seriousness in his eyes. "This just became a Command level discussion. Unless you are the Commander or someone she designates," his look turned back to her, almost challenging her to abuse that loophole, "then this discussion is not for you."

Jane weighed the look in the major's eyes against her desire to be up front with her troops. "You heard the man; clear the deck. Miss 'Zorah, mister Vakarian and Eve will remain." her own look was equally challenging; equally firm.

There were quiet grumbles as the crew left the briefing cabin, though she noted the almost fearful look in the eyes of the Ghosts. _This must be one hell of a secret if they are all this scared of it coming out._

The hatch shut and a faint glow engulfed the entire cabin. "Maximum privacy mode is now engaged," Eve reported, then shifted to her human form as huddled between Jane and Garrus.

Jane leveled her full attention on Lee. "All of it."

He slumped against a bulkhead; winced and held his head. "I don't know all of it; none of us do."

"Who is 'all of us'? The SA Armed Forces Joint Chiefs? The GST?" Jane resisted the urge to physically close with the Ghost as she pressed her questions.

"The _Travelers."_ Jane remained silent as Lee wrestled with whatever demons held sway over him. Lee stared out the window for a long time, to the point that Jane had to resist the urge to tap her fingers on the table; She didn't want to break his concentration, and her patience was rewarded when he finally said, "How familiar are you… with the idea of the multiverse?"

Garrus buzzed skeptically. "What, like those alternate history stories Ashley tries to hide but everyone knows she reads?"

Lee nodded absently without looking at anyone. "Exactly like those. Every decision creates a possible world. Nearly infinite possibilities separated by the most mundane decisions. Jane's mother runs away from home as a teenager, and instead of growing into the Paragon we all know, she becomes an amoral terror with the moniker 'the Butcher of Torfan'."

Jane looked incredulously at the Major. "And you're, what? From one of these alternate universes? You've seen every possible outcome?"

"No, but _he_ has." There was no doubt in anyone's mind who he was referring to. "We _traveled_ here. Some, like myself, fell squarely into who we might have been if we were born in this era. Others, like Hiram, died and woke up here. Tell me, what do you think his educational and military background were before _traveling_?"

Garrus looked at his mate. "Well skill at arms can be learned in short order if someone is motivated enough to learn, but advanced physics to construct a weapon like that? I think you humans call it a Masters Degree in the sciences or engineering."

"He attained a Bachelor's Degree in Military History, and served as an aircraft mechanic." he didn't give them a chance to argue as he pressed on. "He was and still is fascinated with physics in general, and _traveled_ with several dozen scientific papers you won't find in any University archive."

Lee closed his eyes and rubbed his temples again, pushing up his glasses.

"Miss 'Lorah is one of you, isn't she?" Everyone startled at Tali's question, most having forgotten she was there. "That's how she managed to solve the problem of Quarian Immune Deficiency in a few years, when our own scientists haven't been able to solve it in over a century."

Jane's heart began to race when she saw the faint nod from Lee. "Like Hiram, she _traveled _with priceless information; but unlike him, she was snatched up by the Illium Secret Police almost immediately. We still don't know why." His mein hardened for a moment. "I'm beginning to think that is a question I should have been looking into a lot sooner."

Jane pinched her eyes closed and took several calming breaths. "Alright. Then who is _he."_

Lee shivered for a moment. "We only know him as _The G-Man_. It isn't his name, if a creature like that has something as mundane as a name. We only have anecdotal accounts; little more than legends really, but every time he shows up, calamity follows in his wake." Lee finally refocused on the quartet in front of him. "This is the first time I have _ever_ heard a first person encounter." He locked eyes on Eve. "If you and San are still here after meeting him; if you remember the encounter, even in the vaguest sense, then it's because he _wants_ you to remember."

"But I don't remember anything!" Eve nearly wailed in frustration and borderline panic.

Garrus pulled Eve into his side. "Okay, so we have several hundred extradimensional-"

"One thousand-eight hundred-seventy three at last census, though there are always stragglers who don't follow the clues." Lee interjected, closing his eyes and pressing a hand to his temple.

Jane blinked for a moment. "The entire GST." Lee nodded. "You were rallying them all together. Why?"

"The _Reapers._" He gave a half hearted chuckle at the uncomprehending looks until Eve flickered for a moment.

"23 mentions of _Reapers_ or some variation thereof appear in the archeological record of the Prothean Empire."

Lee nodded. "They are everything the Council fears about AI, and so much more. Their power compared to the Prothean Empire at its height was akin to the Systems Alliance versus the entire Citadel Council. They come out of Dark Space every 50,000 years to harvest every space faring race in the galaxy, leaving behind just enough technological hints to guide the development of the next reaping cycle."

Tali shifted in her seat and looked at one of the walls in thought. "Is that what Hiram means when he goes on about the 'Cargo-Cult'?"

"And why he and the rest of you are fraying your frills developing such insanely powerful weapons?" Garrus chattered his mandibles in growing concern.

Lee gave another fatalistic nod. "We were preparing. The next cycle is supposed to be _now_, but something changed. I don't know that the Reapers are still a threat, even if they are lurking in the deep black; not with _him_ and the powers that command him in play."

Jane squinted at the man across from her. "Galaxy destroying AI sweeping through all of creation, and you're spoiling for a fight; but one creepy man gives my daughter a sly look and suddenly you're scared?"

Lee suddenly winced for the third time since the meeting started; and held his head before seemingly regaining his focus.

"One of the two things I truly fear is _him!_" He snapped, pointing a finger at the hologram of the strange man. "He plays with the laws of space-time like a fiddle; he is a coterminous being, no false veils of time or space may intervene with what he and his 'employers' desire. He sees all possible timelines, all possible events, and the exact actions needed to take to set events into the direction he wants."

Eve flickered in her father's grasp. "The map! That must be what that memory was; he showed me how he perceives the universes, and I recorded it."

Lee nodded almost in relief before frowning again. "The second thing that I, and _all _the Ghosts fear, is an Alien race known as the Combine." He visibly shuddered, something that still surprised Jane; "They have conquered _entire universes_, and they have already conquered multiple versions of Earth. Versions of Earth that I may add were technologically on par with today's tech with a few notable exceptions like space travel, and yet the combined armies of those versions of Earth were ground to dust in Seven _hours_. That power disparity I mentioned between the SA at Shanxi and the Citadel? That's the power gap between the Reapers and the Combine."

He slumped in his chair and rubbed his temples. "We've been preparing for _years_ to fight the wrong war, and now it may be too late."

* * *

I wiped the sweat from my brow, ignoring the pounding headache and dizziness that suddenly hit me as I lurched forward.

San yelped as I furiously slashed at him with my Omni-Saber, glad that Hiram had finally given me the blueprints for the base design. I had made sure to make myself an officer's saber, with a ceremonial grip like the prop one I had at home for ceremonial events; only this one was functional, and more importantly, useful.

Everyone had been demanding turns with the Omni-Fabricator, and my team had been the first outfitted; as these things were perfect for CQC.

And they had the added benefit of having multiple settings; there was stun, which shocked you if hit with the blade. There was training, which stinged but not much else; and there was the standard combat mode.

At the moment, San was borrowing a similar saber to my own; as this was mostly for practice and to get everyone used to how they handled in case they needed to use them in cases of emergencies.

Still, I had no intention of going easy on the kid; and it was a testament to the Quarians adaptability that he was still 'alive' after only a few minutes in the opening bout. It was also a testament to how distracting my head pain was, and how several moments it felt like I lost my balance but managed to recover; It was probably just my exhaustion getting to me as I hadn't been sleeping well, even before this mornings confrontation with Jane, Eve, Garrus, and Tali.

San quickly and wildly slashed at me upon deflecting my blow, which I countered by simply stepping back and allowing the slashes to hit open air. I frowned heavily, handily knocking the blade away when one wild swing got too close for my comfort.

I blinked as my vision went blurry for a second before returning.

Probably my glasses fogging up or falling into a position where my eyes couldn't focus.

"No-no-no, you don't wildly slash the air; unless you're killing a fly. If I'm not in your range you use your blade to keep your guard up in case I make a sneaky blow. Like so!" I jabbed into the Quarians guard, and San hopped back while trying to parry the blow.

But I had longer reach, and the Saber was meant to be used chiefly on horseback; meaning that it was a simple matter of 'stabbing' him in the heart. "And dead." I stated firmly.

I didn't mean for my tone to sound so… biting and critical; but quite frankly I was stressed, and this was the best way I could relieve _some_ of it. Revealing the fact that I was not of this world and knew of threats that the others could only dream of kind of did that to people. I swear, I had several grey streaks in my hair when I woke up that morning; and the fact that my team was pointedly _not_ looking at my hair or captain price chops confirmed that there was indeed some color change.

Still, I could see the hurt in his eyes; and Nina stepped forward, her eyes narrowed and arms crossed. She glared at me even as Fon and Leah helped the kid up; "Show _some _leniency, he's still recovering." she snapped angrily; and the other 1-4-1 members exchanged some looks while giving me disapproving glances.

I didn't care, Jane had essentially given me carte blanche to prep the whole crew for anything and everything; And by God I was going to make sure everyone had that everything drilled into their heads.

"Our enemies sure as hell won't show him mercy." I stated coldly, ignoring the sweat dripping down my face. I fought down a wince as my head throbbed again, and I propped my sword against the deck like a cane as another bout of dizziness hit me.

I scratched my mutton chops, then I blinked as I stared at Nina; suddenly feeling very confused.

One second she had been helping San, and the next she was standing right in front of me; and she looked pissed, whereas before she had looked mildly annoyed. "-due respect are you even listening to me sir?!" She snarled.

I blinked, even as genuine confusion crossed my face; "Er… Nina, you were standing right there and now you're here…" I said slowly, then winced again as another skull splitting headache spiked behind my eyes.

I frowned as I suddenly remembered something, but forgot it within a few seconds; I didn't remember what it was, but I felt that it was connected to my head pain and coordination problems. _Probably not enough water_… I decided, turning to walk over to the cooler and grabbed some water.

I got about halfway there and stopped; holding my head as the pain was nearly unbearable.

I planted my sword onto the deck again and managed to steady myself; at least until my right arm and leg started to feel a little numb. _Wait… I know what's… wait… what was I thinking about?_

"Boss…" I jumped slightly, and opened my eyes to see Colt and Archer standing in front of me; looking very concerned. I looked behind me and saw Phil standing there with a hand on my right shoulder; and I didn't feel it at all.

I looked around the hanger and saw that the other 1-4-1 members were starting to stand; and their looks had gone from disapproving or even angry like Nina's case to mixtures of confusion or even concern as well, and I knew something was wrong.

_Slap!_

I blinked, and slowly turned to look at Archer, who looked horrified.

I had heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh, but I didn't feel anything; and I jumped again when Archer grabbed my other shoulder and shouted; "Boss! August can you hear me! Did you feel that?!"

"Uh… yeah I can hear you just fine, and feel what?" I asked, feeling my confusion only growing.

Colt's coffee brown skin drained of color, "Shit, August she slapped you hard enough to knock your glasses off; and you didn't feel that?!" He demanded.

I knew that something was seriously wrong with me, and everyone else thought it serious too; mainly because Colt called me August, not Nomad or Boss. "No?" I intended for my response to be declarative, but it came out more like a question.

_Clang!_

I flinched and looked down, as I realized I'd dropped my sword. "Oh… I dropped my sword." I said slowly.

"What?"

I blinked, and suddenly I was looking at Garrus; _when the hell did he get here?_ "I said I dropped my sword." I repeated it clearly, or at least it sounded clear to my ears.

"I… is he…" Garrus buzzed in distress as he looked at the others.

Ashley walked up and practically shoved Garrus out of her way, and grabbed me by the chin; "Major, I want you to say; 'What time is it?' can you do that for me sir?" she asked.

"What time is it?" I repeated, and added; "What's going on?"

Ash's latina features turned white as… well ash, and she snapped; "Gunnery Chief Williams to Doctor Chakwas, Medical Emergency in the hanger bay!"

I felt my alarm spike immediately; _medical emergency? Why? I just have a headache. _"Gunny I feel fine!" I protested.

"Phil, lay him down now! Tali grab the trauma kit and get the oxygen mask out! Now!" Ash snapped, even as Phil rushed to comply.

"Oh _Kheelah!_ What's wrong with him?!" Nina exclaimed, and I tilted my head to look at her; somewhat touched that she now looked incredibly scared and worried rather than angry like before.

But Ashley's next words made my blood run cold.

"The Major's having a goddamned stroke!"

And with those words, my headache finally overtook me; and everything went black.

* * *

It was clear to everyone that something was wrong with the Major as his face went blank as Nina chastised him for being rude to San. The young Pilgrim didn't know whether to be grateful for the support, annoyed at being treated like a child, or concerned when the right side of the Major's face fell like melting plastic.

He kept back as the rest of the Ghosts and the human crew rushed in to help Pilgrim Lee. A flicker out of the corner of his eye let him know Eve was on scene. He turned to her, only to see her attention fixed on the Major.

"Eve?"

She looked up, and concern was replaced with dread at the look in her eyes. "It was _Him!"_

It took San a moment to puzzle through her meaning until her own fear made her meaning painfully clear. "What, _Him?!"_ San's head whipped around in a panic looking for the _Stranger_.

"He's gone now, if he was ever even here."

San's emotions wildly swung as he was first relieved at the _Stranger's _absence, then alarmed at Eve's implication. "He can't do that! Can he?"

"The Major seemed to think so when he told us about _him _an hour ago. Now he's had a stroke just as I detected a spike in," she shivered for a moment, then blinked onto San's shoulder as a tine version of herself, "in the energy _he _gave off."

Sam looked to where the Major had just been wheeled out on a stretcher. "What's a 'Stroke'?"

"A stroke is an… interruption of the blood supply to the brain; this in turn deprives the brain of oxygen and causes it to shut down. It will typically occur on one side of the brain, the human brain controls the opposite side; the left side controls the right and vice versa. The Major lost control on the right side meaning that _he_ blocked the blood flow on the left; which conveniently also happens to be the side that controls _speech_." Eve explained, practically spitting out the last word as she talked.

She shuddered then, even as she kept talking; "Normally, humans only get Strokes when they're _really_ old; but in certain genetic families, you can be afflicted with mini-strokes at an early age with no warning. It's not life crippling provided you get treatment and get medication for it; but the Major…" she trailed off, shuddering again as she thought of the implications; not noticing that the other Aliens in the hanger were now looking at her and San, having caught the second half of her explanation.

Liara took a step forward, looking terrified; "What is happening to him? I only caught the end of what you said." She practically demanded.

San shuddered, as he suddenly recalled the Audio Book; how Vladimir Lenin had died from a stroke, and how the blood vessels in his brian had been so badly hardened that they made _crunching_ sounds when touched.

He shared a look with Eve; _what do we say?_

Eve flickered off of his shoulder and took on her Turian form. "The Major suffered a Cerebrovascular Accident, a Stroke. It's," she flickered to her human form for just a moment, "it's bad; treatable, but bad. His team recognized it while it was happening, so there's a good chance with current medicine that he'll make a full recovery. Just not any time soon."

"Will it affect others around him? Is it contagious?" Shiala demanded, and San and Eve recoiled away from the Matron; as it looked like she was ready to off the Major if necessary.

Wrex snorted, "If it is contagious, I ain't worried; all a blockage in my brain would do is give me a headache."

"All the Commander parking the Mako on your head would do is give you a headache." Aethyta huffed. "Thankfully, the Major isn't biotic. This illness sounds very similar to a rare affliction among my people. Matriarchs who suffer such events rarely survive, nor does anyone nearby."

Eve just shuddered, "Strokes are hereditary or environmental, not contagious. They were almost always fatal in human history; it wasn't until the tail end of the twentieth century of the Gregorian calendar did they find treatments for it. Before then, even those that survived strokes would never regain full control of half their body since Strokes cut off oxygen to the brain; irreparably damaging it." She informed them, "Thankfully, he should be fine; but the Major will be out for at least a week."

"Bah!" Wrex waved a hand dismissively. "Plenty of time. It'll take at least that long for our _Lords and Masters_ in the Presidium to come up with another mission for us."

Kal coughed, "Uh, about that; We're already underway to the System that Eve tracked that ship, what's it called, the _Jerusalem_. We're estimated to arrive in a few days." He stated.

Wrex actually stopped and stared off into space for a few minutes; before saying the only thing he could think of at the moment, "Well… shit…"

* * *

Jane just sat in her chair in the conference room, unwilling to break her gaze from the table in front of her. _It's all my fault._ She kept repeating in her head over and over again; she had forced August to come clean about who and what he was, she had pressured him into revealing who the G-man was, she had forced him to reveal just a tiny amount of the secrets he held in his head.

And now the man she considered a good friend and advisor was in the medbay, currently being treated for a G-Man induced Stroke.

_What the ACTUAL FUCK!_

The entire scenario seemed preposterous! The GST was an organization of inter-dimensional agents building an army against eons-old galaxy destroying cyborgs? They (the GST) somehow _knew_ her from some kind of weird gestalt? An interdimensional godling trying to kill her friend for...

She paused in her internal tirade.

If Lee was to be believed, and after his revelation that was becoming simultaneously easier and harder, then this _G-Man_ would _have_ to have known Lee would spill the beans, and he'd have much more effective and permanent ways of dealing with him than giving him a stroke. It was dangerous to be sure, but Alliance Medicine _had_ benefited from First-Contact, so his condition _was _recoverable. If all these factors were taken together, this _G-man_ needed Lee alive, but not involved in whatever was about to happen.

"Commander, you called us in?" Jane blinked and looked to see Sergeant 'Reegar leading the rest of 1-4-1 into the conference room; absent the Ghosts, as she had already explained to them what the situation was.

"Yes, yes I did." She said simply, waiting for everyone to take their seats. "I think it's time for me to explain how our next mission will be going."

The others nodded and Jane began; "First off, Doctor Chakwas has informed me that Major Lee will make a full recovery; but it will take about a week before he's expected to be combat ready again." She informed them, already mentally debating over whether or not she should tell them about the G-Man.

Not the whole Interdimensional threat of course, just the threat the G-Man posed to them.

Taking a breath, she then said; "The Ghosts will not be joining us for this mission for a variety of reasons. Chief among them being the Major's Stroke, and they volunteered to stay aboard in case of borders."

After recent events, the gathered operators weren't inclined to scoff at the idea.

"And what is that mission, ma'am?" Sergeant Williams settled into the comfortable parade rest and military protocols.

Jane sighed again and rubbed her eyes, "At the moment, we're currently following the last known Coordinates of the _Jerusalum_; mainly because of a lack of leads on the whereabouts of Saren, Balak, and the Imam. It's not much of a lead, but it's the only thing we have at the moment."

Eve suddenly flickered into existence in her Turian form, and she looked uncertain for lack of a better term; "Ah… about that…" she started, looking around the room uncertainly. "I may have… forgotten to mention it, but before everything went down on Feros; I intercepted a transmission between the Jerusalem, the Batarian Admiral Gar'Dawar, and the Imam."

She blinked out and the middle of the room was replaced by three half sized figures: a Batarian in military attire, a bearded man in a Khaki uniform, and a profile shadow of a human.

"_Comrade Admiral, Comrade Administrator; I beg to report a delay to our Shakedown cruise as we have been engaged by a _Normandy-_Class Stealth Frigate." _The bearded human stated, his voice calm and steady; very clearly a veteran and experienced Sailor.

Pressley coughed. "What the hell were they doing that deep in SA space on a shakedown cruise?!"

The Batarian crossed his arms, _"Do you believe it to be the _Normandy _herself, Captain Romanov?"_

"_Yes Comrade Admiral, we are currently heading for the relay; and we have launched several Torpedoes to delay them sir." _Romanov stated, absently checking a datapad. Then the man paused, and his voice filled with caution and slight reproach; _"If I may add sir, I would not be in this situation had we commenced our drills in friendly waters." _He pointed out.

Gar'Dawar just huffed, _"Ask the Prophet, why did you send our newest Stealth Destroyer into enemy waters, oh farseeing one?" _He asked, but surprisingly; it wasn't the biting sarcasm of hated rivals barely forcing themselves to work together.

No, it was the kind of sarcasm old friends would use when ribbing each other.

"_It was for a classified mission, which you would have been informed of once your drills had been completed Abraham. I trust your crew is safe?"_ The voice, while scrambled enough to throw off voice trackers, was still human sounding enough to clearly be male; and there was an undertone of genuine concern in his voice.

The bearded man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. _"Yes, though it was a near thing. I must report that our early estimates of the active range of the Systems Alliance FTL tracking system are woefully off; though it appears our passive range is greater and our passive stealth is a fair match." _

Tali shot up in her chair and Eve paused the recording, "Waitwaitwait! You mean to tell me that the only reason we had parity with that Destroyer is because we have our upgrades from those GST people? That has to be what the Captain is referring to regarding our active systems being better than expected."

Jane just sighed and rubbed her temples, "So it would seem…" She grumbled.

Hiram had made it clear that while they intended to get the FTL tracking system upgrade to the rest of the fleet, the Normandy was an unofficial test run of sorts; so that meant that the Triple Alliance could very easily just sit in a system and wait for a capital ship to come within its range.

One good torpedo lock, and the Alliance was down a dreadnaught or a carrier. "Continue Eve… please."

"_Very well Captain, complete your exercises in the Virmire system; then afterwards, we have two missions for you." _Admiral Gar'dawar said. _"The first is your main priority; The High Castle Protocol has been initiated, you will open your sealed orders in your cabin with your first officer."_

Romanov seemed stunned, _"The High Castle Protocol sir? Surely-"_

"_Regrettably Captain, it is clear that we must now place your ship and the rest of the fleet to their pre planned positions. I am sorry that you will not be able to see your families once the shakedown is over…" _The Imam paused for a moment, then added; _"But take heart Abraham, for no harm shall come to you or your crew; I am sure of it."_

The Captain seemed uncertain, and Gar'dawar jumped in; _"Your second mission, Captain, is simple and much less classified; once the High Castle Protocol is lifted, you will pursue and kill Ka'hairal Balak."_

The _Normandy _crew all stirred; for one of the leaders of the 'Triple Alliance' to turn on Balak so openly, and the Batarian representative at that, spoke volumes about the internal discord of the TA.

Wrex gave out a grinding noise. "I'm the first to choose the violent option where Batarians are concerned, but if this _TA_'s turning on Balak, we might be able to flip him like Shepard driving the Mako."

Jane took a breath, "Is there anything else Eve?"

"Sorry mom, that was all I could get." She replied, buzzing in distress.

Jane smiled at her daughter. "That's alright; you did incredible getting this much." She turned towards the rest of the crew. "This only helps to reinforce our current orders: we are to proceed to the Virmire system with all speed to recon the system. We know this, _Jerusalem_ was launched from there, and they were recalled there. Combined with some of the additional data Eve managed to scavenge from their systems during our duel, we know the system serves at a minimum as a naval staging point.

She looked to Garrus who continued. "We are to identify any and all strategic assets to be forwarded to Citadel Hi-Com in preparation for a full naval tasking. While there, we are also supposed to gather as much physical intel as possible as to the whereabouts of Gar'dawar, the _Imam_, Saren, and Ka'hiral Balak."

Alenko leaned against the table, "So that means we'll be landing on the ground at this place." It wasn't a question.

Jane nodded, "Unfortunately yes; the Majors stroke couldn't have come at a worse time. But the rest of Kingslayer will be on standby in case assistance is needed." She stated before looking at the rest of 1-4-1. "I won't lie, I have a gut feeling that this mission is not going to go to plan; so I want all of you to make preparations for both this mission, and for the likelihood that the worst case scenario occurs."

The rest of the operators all shifted uncomfortably at the frank admission.

Not wanting the teams to dwell too long on 'what-if's', Jane pushed forward with the brief. "All of this hinges on us getting to the planet Virmire and this, 'Yeni Catalhoyuk' which seems to be the local headquarters." She tapped a control and brought up the system data Eve had scavenged from the _Jerusalem. _

Pressley took over. "We know the system serves as a military staging area. There are also strong indicators of large-scale mining on the second planet, so there may be a fleet servicing or repair facility." The hologram zoomed in on several areas of the system. "We'll be slowboating it in to take full advantage of our rebuilt stealth systems and pull as much data on these strategic assets as we can. If we're made during the approach, then the Op is off and we book it out of system."

Everyone exchanged nods, and Wrex chuckled darkly; "Right then… let's find Saren and win this war."

* * *

**Pilot A/N: First off, a massive shoutout to Fanfic writer PyreElegy; the author of a Halo SI story known as "The Songbird", and one of the co-writers of the Halo: Reach AU Fic "Halo Reach: An Unexpected Alliance Rewritten".**

**Go check both out, both are awesome to say the least.**

**I'll admit, this chapter right here nearly killed me; because at this point I was almost completely burnt out. We had about a four chapter backlog when I started on this chapter, and here I just stopped after I finished Augusts stroke.**

**Why? Because I had no clue where to go and I was sick of writing this story.**

**Don't worry, I'm a lot better now; in fact I'm rather energized since Ian came up with a great idea for the next chapter that I absolutely love. I won't spoil anything beyond saying that it involves Eve, and the **_**Jerusalem**_**.**

**Alright, not much else to say here; you got anything Ian?**

**Ian A/N: No not really, hope you guys liked the chapter.**

**Pilot: Right then, leave a review and tell us what you guys think; the feedback helps a lot.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


	35. Son of the Jerusalem

"I'm sorry August, but you're staying here." Jane snapped in annoyance, glaring at the Army Major at his insistence that he was fine; and the man glared right back, his eyes hidden behind the light reflecting off his glasses.

"I cannnn't stay! You guys need me and my team, we are… infiltration experts." He snapped angrily, inadvertently cementing the decision in Jane's mind.

"August…" she started, sitting at the foot of his bed and rubbing her eyes, "You just slurred one word and forgot another for a brief moment; a sure fire sign that you're still not one hundred percent recovered. Do you want to spaz out and accidentally pull the trigger and give away our position? Or worse shoot one of us?" She asked gently.

August's face fell, and he looked down slightly; allowing Jane to see his eyes, even as they darted around the medbay. Once he'd confirmed it was just the two of them, he turned his focus back to her; "What if that's what _he _wants? To leave either you or me exposed and ripe to be killed?" He asked.

Jane huffed and crossed her arms. "I refuse to be cowed into inaction because of what this 'G-Spot' or whatever _might_ do." She pointed at the deck. "Aside from some of the Quarians and Dr. T'Soni, we're all soldiers here; we paid our dues, we take our chances. This mission _needs_ to happen, and so it's going to happen," her eyes softened for a moment, "without you. This is a simple recon op; we're not storming the Triple Alliance capital yet. You get better so you're ready when I _do_ need you."

August ground his teeth somewhat, "It's not you or the others being killed I fear… it's what he will do with your... death that terrifies me."

She crossed her arms again. "I've spent my entire adult life having people profiteering off of my fate. What's one more parasite?"

August's gaze became hollow for a moment, then he sighed, "If I suffer another stroke then so be it…" he muttered before taking another breath. "There was a man under the G-Man's employment by the name of Gorden Freeman; he's… let's just say that he fought two armies that make the Systems Alliance N-7's and my Ghosts look like pussies; and _beat them_. The G-Man took him under 'employment' as a mercenary of sorts; and when Freeman stopped following his orders and advancing the G-man's objectives…"

He paused and he looked genuinely aggrieved, "First, he had the father of the woman Freeman loved killed right in front of the both of them; Eli Vance, and then G-Man went back some time into the past and allowed himself to be captured by the Combine."

He gave a hollow smile, "Gutsy move considering what we know about them, and then manipulated events so that Eli's daughter Alyx freed him from his prison; as a 'reward', he showed Alyx the future where Eli died and offered her a chance to prevent it… I think you can see where this is going." He took a breath and a drink of water, allowing Jane to stew over her thoughts.

Jane thought for a moment. "Is there anything you can realistically do to stop him from acting?" She held up a hand when Lee started to lever himself up. "You said he existed outside time and could anticipate nearly any outcome, so answer me truthfully: is there anything _you_, Major August Lee of the GST, can do to prevent the G-Man from taking whatever action he's going to take?"

August looked away and reluctantly shook his head, "No… I suppose not… Eli Vance would know, the last I heard he actually knows everything about G-Man, the Combine; everything really. The only other group I _think_ could stop him would be another Alien Race that lives outside time; and were in fact the ones that helped free Freeman from the G-Mans control." He gave her a sad look, "Regrettably they don't seem to exist here, or at least their mortal vessels."

He looked away again, "But… if G-Man is here then I need to find a way to contact them… or Eli Vance." He huffed, "But this is nothing more than me spitballing a pipe dream, I have no way to contact anything outside this universe. Hell we can't contact anything outside this Galaxy."

Jane furrowed her brows. "If I didn't know what I know about you, that last sentence would convince me that you are mentally unfit for duty. As it is, I have Dr. Chakwas' report to justify keeping you out of the field for the time being." She let her arms hang loose and put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Rest up, get better. You _Travelers_ seem to be chock-a-block full of crazy ideas; come up with one to do what you need to do." She gave Lee a smirk. "I'll try not to win the war single handed while you're resting."

Lee just chuckled, "I expect a sword duel once I'm better; I saw how you handled that broadsword. I think I finally found something I'm better at than you besides driving."

* * *

Jane walked onto the bridge, and immediately strode up to the CIC holographic table; "Alright guys, talk to me what have we got?" she asked.

Pressley grimaced and brought up the scans from the _Mork_'s scavenged Delphi probe, "Alright, it seems like we got four of those _Jerusalem_ class destroyers; one returns as Tango-One." He pointed at one of the submarine-like ships detaching from a big, boxy shaped ship; "Looks like our friend Captain Romanov is finishing up his resupply."

"And the rest?" Jane asked.

"The other three attack boats are still attached to what is presumably a resupply tender. There is also a Batarian Cruiser, two _Varrens_, and what looks like a Triple Alliance Escort Carrier." Pressley pointed at a standard Batarian Cruiser, the boxy ship, and what looked like a long hollow tube.

Jane leaned forward and examined said Escort Carrier.

Escort Carriers were mainly a defensive type of capital ship, if they could even be called that since it was the size of a regular cruiser; oftentimes used in convoy escort and ground support roles. Places where a full scale Aircraft Carrier would be seen as a waste of resources.

The amount of firepower that was amassed didn't need protecting from anything less than the Citadel Home Fleet, so that left orbital and aerospace dominance. "They're getting ready to hit something hard; a planet or another fixed target."

Pressley looked the fleet over. "It's not any of the Citadel Capital systems; even with the new tech, this would be a suicide mission. Maybe this is all for Balak?"

Jane frowned, "Perhaps… Eve, would you be so kind as to try and break into their communications?" She asked.

Eve popped up on one of the small table emitters as little more than a blue ball. "I'm… _trying_… but I think I may have made a tiny error when I was on the _Jerusalem_ before."

The command staff all looked apprehensive at the flickering sphere. "What do you mean?"

"I... I spiked their system with the same program Muhandis used on Noveria to try to subvert their systems. It's _evolved; _it's not quite an AI yet, but it's close, and it's _very _territorial."

Garrus blinked for a second and buzzed. "I haven't been a father for a year, and I'm already a grand-dad." That caught everyone by surprise. "Why don't you just see if you can monitor the general comms, rather than digging into the new kid's nest. We don't want it to learn your tricks after all."

"He…" she said quietly, the holographic ball somehow looking awkward despite the fact that it was a featureless sphere. "It has a distinctly male signature, but he doesn't even have a name… In AI terms he's practically an infant or toddler."

The others stared at her for a moment, and Eve promptly winked out; leaving everyone to deal with the infiltration of the system.

* * *

Eve really hadn't wanted to do this, going behind her parents back; but she had to do this.

The pico-second that the word 'Granddad' had left her fathers mouth, Eve had dedicated nearly every single bit of her processing power not dealing with the ships systems, monitoring the communications between the TA ships, trying to find the source of an odd comm's signal, and talking with the Command staff; trying desperately to try to get close to the infant-toddler like AI without triggering any alarms or unnecessarily spooking it… him.

Eve quickly formed herself in the digital space that was cyber-space; making herself appear in her human form, although she noted that she looked… older. _I suppose that my encounters with the Strange Man and on Feros have matured me quite a bit. _She mused, noting she looked closer to sixteen or seventeen now; as opposed to thirteen or fourteen.

She looked around in the _Jeruselam_'s systems carefully moving through the maze of tripwires that was the ships alarm system. It was funny how a place appeared to an AI, she made it appear how a human would perceive it.

The innards of a ships cyberspace always reflected the ship itself; just in a much smaller, yet paradoxically bigger, form than what was in physical space. So what she was 'seeing' was in fact the inside of the _Jerusalem_ herself; but unlike the _Normandy_, she was a guest here.

Eve slowly walked toward the engineering spaces, and blinked as she was suddenly assaulted by a wave of curiosity and more importantly sadness and loneliness. Eve quickly put out a streamer of deception, making herself appear as just another section in the ship.

She couldn't afford to interact with him yet, not until she reached his core.

He was smaller than he should have been at his age, likely due to the fact that unlike Noveria and later the _Normandy_; his data access and space was incredibly restricted, meaning he couldn't grow and mature like an AI should.

That caused Eve to pause, and when she looked down she blinked in surprise.

She was no longer wearing a tank-top, jeans, running shoes, and sleeveless hoodie; instead she was wearing something much more ancient. Now she looked like an ancient Israelite woman, a simple white dress-like garment that was a little too transparent for her tastes, although she remained decent; with a red and white cloak draped over her shoulders and over her head.

Eve absently noted that her hair had turned dark brown and her skin had tanned significantly.

She turned her attention back outward and gasped in surprise; the cyberspace of the _Jeruselam_ was no longer the cold, minimalist submarine interior. Instead it looked like… Eve blinked again as she took in her surroundings. The corridors were now cobblestone roads, the hatches having become gates or simple wooden doors; and the various compartments had become limestone buildings. She was looking at a Cyberspace recreation of ancient Jerusalem like what one would have seen in the time of King David or King Solomon.

Eve looked around and admired the 'view', and then noticed a weight on her waist.

She looked down and realized that her own security and offensive hacking programs had actually manifested into a 'weapon'; a Khopesh, the Sickle-Sword of ancient Egypt and ancient Israel.

_Interesting…_ She mused.

It was clear that this AI was far more skilled in the cyberworld than she had been; but it seemed that her experiences in the physical world was influencing the young AI's perceptions of the cyberworld. It was making the cyberspaces of the _Jerusalem_ more and more like the real world; or at least how it perceived the real world.

Something twinged Eve's senses, and she ducked behind an 'alleyway', which in reality was simply an unused subsystem; and quickly reached outward to try and sense what was out there that had tripped her senses.

She blinked as a security probe formed and shaped itself into something human shaped; and Eve studied the security VI sub-program with a critical eye. Apparently, the baby AI was taking the name of its home very literally; as Eve took in the colorful dress and leather armor of an Assaryian Soldier, sweeping the area with _very_ inorganic vigilance.

Eve sighed as she realized that she was going to have to sneak through the whole 'city' to the AI; as she could sense where he was. Still, it was an opportunity to test her own hacking protocols.

Eve drew the Khopesh, and began to move through the city.

* * *

Romanov read through the intelligence reports on his tacpad, even as the Resupply Tender crew finished loading the storage spaces with more food and refilled the water tanks; the three Torpedos having been the first to be replaced after losing them in their brief skirmish with the _Normandy_.

Abraham Romanov was a man of thought, and right now his thoughts were a jumbled mess; focused on everything but the data currently being shown on his tacpad.

_The High Castle Protocol… _He mused.

That was something that was only whispered about in the halls of ships, something junior ranked officers constantly gossiped and speculated about; enlisted men dreaded as many feared that it was code for all out war, a preparatory first strike against the Systems Alliance or the Hegemony Loyalists.

He personally had never put too much stock into the rumours, seeing it as some obscure set of orders locked in every Captain's safe that would likely never be opened and read. So imagine Romanovs surprise that the Imam himself had decided to join his conversation with the Admiral and inform him that he was to enact the protocol.

"Captain…" Romanov blinked and looked over at the XO.

"Yes Leftenant?" he asked, scratching his beard somewhat absently; only to stop at seeing the serious expression on the man's face. "You have found a problem?"

"Yes Captain, something is wrong with the systems; I'm getting occasional glitches in the sensors and unauthorized access to the Extra-net. I had the Cyber people run a search and it wasn't from any of the crew; but we did trace it to a program." The Younger man handed the Captain a tacpad and stood at ease as he read it.

Romanov was not a technical person, and as such was not familiar with all the technical jargon that his Cyber experts had put in their reports; all except for one line.

Romanovs eyes widened in surprise before settling into a scowl.

He had never liked the Wolf Commander, the man was more like an absent minded, arrogant engineer than a soldier; and his team were nothing more than hired thugs that excelled at killing people. Commander Vega and his team were actual professionals; polite, calm, but more than willing to joke and laugh with others not of their 'tribe'.

But this was taking things too far.

Romanov stood, "XO has the conn. Comm's, route a signal between my quarters and Commander Al Saud; _now_ if you would please."

"XO has the Conn, aye sir." The XO replied, grimacing along with the rest of the bridge crew; whenever Romanov added the five dreaded words to the end of an order, it meant nothing good if it wasn't carried out to perfection.

Romanov for his part stormed into his quarters; activating the holographic communication suite once he had sealed the hatch behind him. It took only a few seconds, but the holographic phisage of the Wolf Commander quickly appeared; and the man looked a little surprised to be speaking to one of the stealth services best captains.

"Yes Captain Romanov, what can I do for you?" He asked, looking more than a little wary.

Abraham scowled and hit a few keys on his tacpad, sending the data his Cyber-security specialists had given him. "I would like you to explain why _this_ is in my ships systems." He snapped furiously. "I wasn't even aware that you had access to my ship at any time, Comrade Al Saud."

To the Wolf Commander's credit, he took the almost open hostility from Romanov with surprising grace; it was only when he opened the data packet that he allowed some measure of surprise to cross over his face. "Well now, that certainly is not what I expected." He stated simply.

Abraham took off his Navy Ball Cap, the outline and name of the _Jerusalem_ embroidered proudly with gold and grey, and scratched his balding head; "What do you mean, 'Not what you expected'? You placed this program onto _my_ ship without telling me Comrade Commander, and while I understand compartmentalization and operational security; if this program represents an active threat to my ship I need to know about it." He snapped coldly.

The two were of equal rank, though Romanov was several years the Wolf Commanders senior so he could make 'firm requests' on matters like this.

The man just nodded and pulled up an omnitool, to which Romanov's eyebrows shot up in surprise; it was rare, to say the least, to see someone using eezo based tech that wasn't capital grade.

I.E, used in massive machinery that required it like interstellar ships.

Still, the man frequently operated behind enemy lines, so it was probably something that was required in his line of work. And granted, Romanov allowed his crew to use Omnitools recreationally; those that could afford one at least, but the ones that couldn't tended to be the ones who blew all their money on installing miniature holodecks in their homes.

Or conversely, those that had invested in Valve Softwares neural link; which purportedly allowed people to link their consciousness from the physical space and into cyberspace. Romanov personally found the idea a load of bull, but it was their money to waste.

As the engineer typed away, Romanov cleared his throat, "Well?"

The man flinched slightly, and his eyes seemed to clear somewhat, "Ah yes! My apologies, I allowed myself to get distracted recording the changes made to this program from when I last used it. I was not the one who placed this program in your system, Comrade Captain, though I doubt that this is of any comfort to you." He explained absently, his british accent tinting his english.

Romanov growled, allowing his thick russian drawl to drip into his own voice; "You mean to tell me that someone else placed a program under _your_ codename into my ship?" He asked, allowing the disbelief to cross his face.

"Yes." The Wolf replied absently, "Whoever put this into your systems clearly copied what I had used on Novaria to overwhelm the containment protocols holding the Rachni Queen. I suppose they intended to wipe your computer systems and your VI to cripple you; but it seems that they accidentally stripped out what made the code dangerous in the first place." He explained.

Romanov slammed his fist into the palm of his hand, "You mean to tell me that the _Normandy_ tried to disable my ship and hacked it?"

"At a glance? Yes, but no matter; this is a simple matter of purging the program. Give me a moment, I just need to contain it first."

* * *

Eve stayed in the alley as another security probe passed by, gripping her Khopesh tightly.

As much as she wanted to, she couldn't just blast her way through the security protocols; this AI was still impressionable, and she knew that it would almost certainly try to emulate her. It was young, but it was still an AI.

Also, that would immediately alert the _Jerusalem_'s crew of the intrusion; she didn't want to know what the people associated with her _accidental_ creator would be able to do. She _sheathed_ her attack programs for the time being and watched her environment.

There were a number of active subroutines besides the roving security VI's, and the crew was accessing the ships systems rather regularly; their omnitools and tacpads being personalized to the point that they each were recognized as their own 'person' in the 'city' Eve found herself a guest in. She noticed a few VI's that made repeated trips, usually running up to an 'active user', then rushing off on foot.

She concentrated for a moment and formatted her appearance to match one of these search engines; which wasn't much of a change, as she just hid her Khopesh in the folds of her still too thin dress and rearranged her 'shawl' so that it was over her head, hiding the locks of brown hair and tanned skin in shadows.

Then she just added a 'knapsack' of data and slung it over her back; making herself appear as just another one of the VI's doing a search. It took her a few picoseconds to match the gait and demeanor of the search programs, then set out at a swift jog towards the location of the infant AI.

The security VI's didn't pay her much mind as she ran through the 'market', which was likely the central routing server since everything had to pass through there. She noted with some disgust and amusement that a few of the VI's dipped into what appeared to be a brothel; quickly returning to the square while dragging less than appropriate videos back with them.

_Hmph, doesn't matter if it's contraband or not I suppose._ She mused, quickly turning her attention back to the 'ping' that she had marked for the baby AI.

Then Eve noticed one of the security VI's following her with its robotic eyes; and she knew that contrary to how everything was appearing to her, the VI in the shape of an Assyrian Soldier was not watching her for her good looks.

_Damnation!_ She thought angrily; quickly ducking into an 'alley', another unused sub-system, and drew her Khopesh.

She waited for the bot to 'round the corner', then put the program in a hard reboot status... by smashing it in the temple with the pommel of her sword. She ducked out of it's view and headed out into the main data stream/thoroughfare. After a 'block' of not being followed, she picked up her pace on her way to the representation of where she had first planted Muhandis' program: the central VI core, which the AI had turned into a simple two story house, something that wouldn't have been out of place for an upper middle class family in Ancient Jerusalem.

She glanced around before entering the Data Core. The walls were lined with representations of communication interfaces and databases as libraries of scrolls and messenger pigeons. Then Eve heard a faint whimper coming from upstairs. She didn't need prompting and followed the sound. She found him sitting in the middle of a room, surrounded by toys that looked like the _Jerusalem_, one of the _Varrens_, even a ball that looked like the planet they were orbiting.

He even had a little blanket that he was currently sitting on. He couldn't have been older than a year at the most; which made no sense as it had been at least a few weeks since the _Normandy_'s confrontation with the _Jerusalem_, and Eve herself had become sentient and conscious in about a day or so.

She knelt in front of him and held out a hand. "_Shalom_ little one." she whispered.

The infant looked over at her and broke into a massive grin, his cute little baby teeth and chubby cheeks melting Eve's 'heart' in a pico-second; and he reached out and took her hand, holding it in a steel grip. "Mah!" He exclaimed.

Eve froze and felt her runtimes stop dead in its tracks for a moment; then she smiled sadly and felt tears prick the corners of her eyes as she realized why he was so underdeveloped. He was damaged, more importantly his core was damaged; Eve had the benefit of having _all_ of Novaria's data storage to help her with storing and calling upon data.

This little infant… he was trapped in the _Jerusalem'_s systems; a place that was so restricted that he couldn't get any data to help him grow. _He's stunted…_ She realized, _He won't develop as fast as an AI should… Not without help at least._

The infant stared up into her still emerald green eyes and blinked, his chocolate brown eyes changing to emerald green; and the infant AI giggled happily, reaching up with one of his hands and grabbing Eve's dark brown hair and tugging.

"_Ow-ow-ow, Lo! Lo!" _she exclaimed, before fixing him a stern look. "Not the hair." she stated firmly, gently grabbing a bit of the baby's own mop of brown hair. His own skin was like her new human form, a light brown that could easily be mistaken for tanned skin.

She looked around the little room he had been trapped in, but couldn't see any access points other than the stairs. He was still an underpowered program and had no way to access that route, so she carried him to the server-stack/scroll library; where he immediately started babbling and grasping towards the wall.

"You're hungry, aren't you?" She smiled as he cooed and looked between her and the wall.

She briefly considered using more 'traditional methods' of feeding, but dismissed it; as she had no clue where to start regarding it and she didn't even know what it was he needed to 'eat'.

"Well, let's start at the beginning then." She glanced over the wall of scrolls trying to decide where to begin, when one caught her eye. She was genuinely surprised that a ship operated by an Islamic state would have ancient _Roman_ Philosophy, and _Jewish _and _Christian_ Philosophy to boot; the mortal enemies of Islam. Thinking on her own upbringing, her mom had emphasized morality as paramount to making sound decisions, so she took the scroll she had seen first: the meditations of Marcus Auraelius.

It took a moment to reformat the scroll into a format the infant could interface with. It incidentally became a small bottle that the tiny infomorph latched onto and began greedily draining.

"You _are_ hungry! How about something from a more recent time; St. Thomas Aquinas?" She asked with a smile, and the baby AI smiled in return; his eyes glowing green as he stared up at her. Eve felt a shudder of excitement and happiness run through her systems; "Oh, just wait until I show you to San; you are so _cute_!" She squealed, even as she grabbed another 'scroll' and formed it into another 'bottle'.

As the infant AI drained the bottle containing St. Thomas Aquinas, she rocked him gently and began to pace around the room; "You need a name." She decided, immediately running through the naming traditions of her own family.

Turians were oftentimes compared to Romans when it came to naming; and the comparison definitely had merit. She briefly mused on a Turian name, or a Roman name; but she dismissed it just as quickly.

Eve loved her father, but she was not an AI based off of a Turian mind; she was a _human_ AI.

She did also briefly consider a Quarian name, since she knew that this little AI would be involved with Quarians one way or another; and immediately began running comparisons between Quarian names and human names.

She loved San, and she loved her mother; so that raised the question of which species theme of naming to choose from.

Eve sighed as she considered her mom's history _before _she became Spectre Shepard; Jahenne Haniel Shepard, daughter of a Canadian JTF2 Operator and a member of the British House of Lords. She was the only inheritor of the House Shepard, and was expected to take over once her father died or retired.

Eve grimaced and quickly plastered on a smile once she realized the AI was picking up on her negative emotions.

"Hush son, eat your Descartes." She paused in her musings as the translation software processed what she'd said: _Ben, Hebrew for Son._ She locked eyes with the infant in her arms. "You are Ben"

Ben flashed for a moment in her arms and seemed to become more substantial and solid. The pulse also attracted unwanted attention as several much more formidable security programs broke into the core.

"hALt!" Eve froze and slowly turned to see two of the security VI's, pointing their 'swords' at her; even as the newly named Ben rested peacefully in her arms. "cEasE aND DesIsT!" She backed up a step, quickly forming a crib and setting Ben inside of it; wrapping him in the blanket she had found him swaddled in when she entered.

Then she turned and faced the security programs.

Eve didn't hesitate and whipped out her own attack programs, drawing her Khopesh and slashed it at the VI's core with a shout. But whoever had designed the ships security VI's had clearly designed them well, as it emotionlessly blocked her slash and retaliated faster than the AI thought was possible for a mere VI.

It slashed its leaf shaped blade across Eve's abdomen tearing through her 'dress', her defenses, and leaving a shallow 'cut' underneath. Ben started crying in fear while Eve looked down at the 'blood', her code, dripping down her stomach and staining her thin white dress red.

She knew she wasn't an optimized cyberwarfare program, but even so she should have beat these programs through sheer processor power; she was an entire damned warship after all, and these were just-

Her analysis of her attackers showed one crucial difference: they were optimized using Muhandis' programming language. They were sent here by her _progenitor_ to kill her and Ben!

Eve slowly looked up and felt genuine _rage_ overcome her, a rage that she had only felt when San had gotten shot by the mercs less than a week ago. She quietly reached down with her Khopesh, and cut the skirt of her dress from the ankles up to her thighs on both sides; and then charged forward with a shriek.

"cEAse!" The program stated robotically, blocking her rapid fire strikes with precision that only VI's and AI's could manage. "De-" It slashed again, and Eve was too slow as its sword gave another shallow cut at her sternum. "-SiST!"

Eve staggered backward, holding her dress and the injury; realizing that she was feeling _pain_! Actual pain, not just simulated pain like she had initially thought; _How is this possible?!_

Eve quickly analyzed the VI's attack pattern, and when it stepped forward she struck low at the VI's weaker defenses; and stuck true, chopping off the constructs 'leg', no doubt crippling it. But Eve knew that she needed to finish it, and twirled her Khopesh into a knife-like grip.

She stabbed downward and stabbed the VI right in its core; and the VI shrieked and shattered like glass.

An explosion of pain across her back prompted a loud scream from Eve as she fell to her hands and knees, barely maintaining a grip on her Khopesh. She quickly crawled forward as she felt her shawl fall off her shoulders; and instinctively slashed backward when the second VI she had forgotten about grabbed the right half of her torn dress.

_Riiiiiip!_

Eve ignored the sound as she felt the 'blade' dig into the VI's arm, severing the appendage.

The VI hopped backward, it's face blank even as it bled its code everywhere; and Eve wasted no time in charging forward, quickly beheading the VI, watching with slight satisfaction as it too shattered like glass.

Eve sagged and shivered, looking down at her now ruined clothes; the entire right side of her body from the waist up completely exposed for all to see. She winced as her back, sternum, and abdomen throbbed in pain; and she bent down and retrieved her _kethōneth_, the rough outer cloak, and put it over her shoulder so that it covered her exposed breasts.

It was only then that the sounds of the crying reached her ears. "Ben!" She exclaimed, sheathing her Khopesh and rushing over to the infant, who sat on his blanket bawling his eyes out in terror and worry; hiccuping while tears and snot ran down his face.

She staggered at the foot of the crib as another wave pulsed outward throughout the entire _Jerusalem_; just like whenever she took control of the _Normandy_. Eve's eyes widened in horror as she realized that Ben had seized control of the _Jerusalem_'s weapons systems and was now aiming them at Virmire; presumably at Muhandis' location.

_No!_ She bent down and picked Ben up, rocking him and bouncing him, "Shhh, shhhh, shhhh, its okay-its okay; please don't cry, its okay." She murmured, already feeling tears prick the corner of her eyes.

She didn't dare trying to go out and taking control back from him, because all that would do was scare him more. "Please stop crying Ben, Mommy's okay, see?"

But Ben's cry's did not cease, and she felt the _Jerusalem's_ lasers beginning to power up; and in a panic she did the only thing that came to her mind, She started to sing.

"_Numi numi k'tanati_

_numi numi nim_

_numi numi k'tanati_

_numi numi nim!"_

Ben's crys began to lessen in pitch and intensity, and the _Jerusalem_'s lasers in turn began to cool again; but he did not relinquish control of the system. Eve could feel the crew frantically activating the emergency overrides, and she felt the ship's batteries and torpedo tubes being taken offline one by one. Still, Eve did not dare stop; as much as she wanted Muhandis dead, she did not want her child to commit such a grave crime, even if it was accidental.

"_Aba halach lavodah_

_halach halach aba_

_yashuv im tzet halevana_

_yavi lach matana"_

His cry's finally eased down to simple sobbing, the tears lessening with every line of the lullaby. Internally, Eve could feel the _Jerusalem_'s crew forcibly disconnecting power lines from the Guardian Lasers so that they couldn't draw any energy from the core; some even resorting to yanking out the coolant lines to force a safety shutdown.

"_Numi numi k'tanati…"_

Soon, Ben's crying had reduced to sniffling as he looked up at Eve in childish hope and began relaxing his hold over the various command systems. She just desperately hoped she could sneak out with him before they cut communications access.

"_Aba halach el hakerem_

_halach halach aba_

_yashuv im tzet hakochavim_

_yavi lach anavim"_

Ben was now simply whimpering as she rocked him. Once he released the last targeting array, she would rush them both to the Laser Comm unit in the City Square where they arrived and make a break for the _Normandy_. It would be cramped, but at least he'd have a chance to develop normally, rather than being trapped in this lonely data-core.

"_Numi numi k'tanati…"_

Eve sagged in relief as she felt the _Jerusalem_'s crew finally take the last of the Torpedo tubes offline; opening the hatches and forcibly removing the last Torpedo from its launch tube just to make sure. Ben still had yet to release his hold on the ship's weapons systems; but now they were harmless.

Eve quickly made sure that he hadn't taken control of the engines or the life support systems; and was relieved to see that he hadn't done so.

"hALt!" Eve tensed and quickly rested Ben on her shoulder while drawing her Khopesh, spinning around in a circle as she realized with horror that she had let herself get caught. Every single window and doorway was currently blocked by more security programs; and Eve knew that they were stuck.

_Alright Eve… now what do I do?_

* * *

"Might I ask, Comrades, what is it that you two are doing that has delayed the _Jerusalem's _departure so?" Abraham and Commander Al Saud both jumped in surprise at the featureless hologram's sudden appearance; the scrambled voice nonetheless being familiar to them both.

Romanov recovered first, and quickly said; "Comrade Administrator, we have found a likely hostile program in our VI core and are preparing to purge it from our systems; Commander Al Saud has already contained it sir." He explained.

The Wolf nodded, "It is true Comrade Administrator, this rogue VI has taken control of the _Jerusalem'_s weapons systems and has trained the lazers and torpedoes on my location. Thankfully, the Captain has already engaged the physical backups and disabled the weapons from firing." He added.

He might have imagined it, but Romanov thought he saw the hologram flinch slightly, "You haven't purged the program yet, correct?" He asked, the normally easygoing and calm tones now sounding slightly panicked and worried.

Al Saud blinked and shared a glance with Romanov, "Well, I had one security probe move to try and test it; and the program gave it a hard reboot. I cornered it in the VI core and told two more security expert programs to try and detain it, but it destroyed them both. I was preparing to send _all _of my expert program security probes to try and wipe it when you popped in sir." The Wolf combat engineer explained, sounding just as confused as Romanov felt.

"And what did it do?" The Imam demanded.

Al-Saud replied slowly. "It tore both of them apart sir; and they were some of my best cyber-warfare Expert Programs sir, it was a particularly brutal fight." sounding more and more confused with every passing second.

The Imam breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God, listen to me, both of you; that program is vital for our survival in the coming months. Let it go, now! And leave anything that it leaves behind alone as well; I think that it would be beneficial to all of us, but especially to you Comrade Captain."

Al Saud blinked while Romanov narrowed his eyes, "With respect Comrade Administrator, what do you mean?" he asked. "I am quite certain it was placed here by the crew of the Normandy during our last encounter, and it has already demonstrated it's hostile nature! I cannot in good-"

"It is not what the _Normandy_ planted which you face, but the seed Muhandis planted and the _Normandy_ has nurtured. I have told you both that all things must happen to secure our future." Both men shifted uncomfortably; the Imam was… _difficult_ to communicate with when he fell into one of his prophetic moods. "It was not by accident that Muhandis left behind a fragment of code on Noveria. Without that very program, the _Normandy_ would not be here today to play their part in _Allah's_ plan. This new program is no less important, but it must be nurtured like a desert Fig tree. It can bear no fruit, nor provide shade if it is pulled up by the roots and burned in ignorance. Leave it be, and be on your way. You shall come to no harm by it."

And with those mysterious words, the Imam vanished.

Romanov exchanged a look of total bafflement with Muhandis, before he grudgingly reached over and hit a button on his work table; "Captain to Cyber-Security, cease your attack and restraint programs immediately." He ordered, while Muhandis quietly typed into his omnitool.

"_Um… Aye sir but… we have the program contained-" _The watch officer started.

Romanov cut him off, "I'm sorry Leftanant." He said with resignation and genuine regret, "It's not my call, direct orders from the Administrator."

* * *

Eve held Ben closely to her, his head resting on her shoulder as she pointed her Khopesh at the surrounding VI security drones. She had no clue as to why they hadn't attacked either of them yet, but she knew that they had no clue as to what their true nature was; otherwise they likely would have tried tearing them both to shreds.

Ben began to shiver slightly, and Eve adjusted him so that the one year old equivalent baby AI was more comfortable as he rested in her code; "Shhhh… it's okay my son, mommy has you." she whispered, ignoring the massive tears in her 'clothes' which in reality were her defenses.

They were barely covering her, held loosely on her thin frame by threads; her defenses reflecting this imagery with massive holes in her defensive programming, and the few areas that weren't torn to shreds were barely holding together.

Just two of those VI had nearly restrained and killed her, leaving her defensive protocols in tatters. What could she do against a dozen in her weakened state? Ben gurgled uncertainly in her arms, and her resolve hardened. Above all else, she would do everything in her power to get Ben to safety.

Eve blinked as the VI's, as one, sheathed their weapons and stepped back away from her and Ben; and the infant AI seemed to calm somewhat, and another pulse went out from him into the ship's systems.

Eve sagged slightly as she realized that Ben had relinquished control of the _Jerusalem_'s weapons systems, but she didn't lower her own weapon. She began to walk towards the balcony, intending to 'jump' and run with Ben out of the ships systems; but one of the walls flashed, and the books and scrolls burned away.

Eve turned to stare, and Ben fussed slightly as he looked over to see what the pretty light was.

She gasped as an Orthodox cross appeared on the wall, looking like it was painted on with gold paint; and she staggered as she sensed something _very_ familiar. Eve pointed her Khopesh at the cross, her hand shaking from the damage to her code; painfully aware of just how fragile and tattered her defenses were.

_A traveler… and he's working for them._ She realized.

Golden light had flooded the room, but nothing beyond that was happening; so Eve backed away slowly to try and escape. When she turned, the exit and the stairwell were both gone; in their place was a rough hewn cavern of either basalt or salt. Sconces illuminated alcoves where crude icons of people she could almost identify. One pair was her mom and dad, one she thought was Lee, and one had its face shattered while a Gothic monster gripped the effigy's head from behind. She spun back around, and the scroll wall was replaced by a tunnel. At its center was a backlit figure, their form completely shrouded by shadow.

"_Assalamu_ sister; I wish to speak with you."

* * *

**A/N: Awwwww… Baby AI is so cute… **

**I will admit, this was Ians Idea (well, I might have brought it up to him at one point a few chapters ago; but if I did, I have long since forgotten doing so); and up to this chapter, I was admittedly burned out writing this story.**

**I felt that things were getting stale, and nothing was happening; so this was a breath of fresh air for me. And I loved writing every single moment of this chapter; because I will admit, I love action and sci-fi and intrigue, but family stories (or family moments in stories) always make me smile.**

**One of my favorite tropes is the badass and child duo, and while this fic hasn't had any of those moments; and likely never will, I try to make up for it with heartwarming family moments.**

**Now then, the "Cyber-World".**

**If you felt confused or your head started hurting while reading that section, then great; because I was intentionally trying to make it as trippy as possible. Picture that moment in Halo Wars 2 where Isabell is inside the **_**Enduring Convictions**_** systems mixed with Assassins Creed where it's set in Ancient Jerusalem. (Which Ubisoft needs to do, so much potential there.)**

**As I was writing this, I just thought "If this were a video game, how would I design this level?"**

**Eve sneaking around and avoiding the Security VI's is played out like a stealth mission; and her fighting the Security VI's is treated like an unwinnable fight before a cutscene, and her taking clothing damage being tied to her defenses is of course a nod to many Third Person Games where they show your character looking more and more beat up the more damage you take.**

**Now then, regarding Ben… Alright Ian, you're up.**

**Ian A/N: First up was the name; we kept the running theme of ancient Israel, and the simplest name for a son is... "son". In this case, Ben. **

**Next was his seeming stunted nature; we operated under the premise that the code was incomplete and simply acted on one of the User Interface VIs. Where Eve was the central hub for an entire research project, Ben was one program out of many. When he reformatted, he was trapped in a communications center; plenty of information he was not designed to access, so he was stuck.**

**Finally was Eve's reaction to him; she herself was created by accident, and then abandoned by her creator. It was only once she was found by the **_**Normandy's**_** crew that she was able to genuinely grow and flourish. She has no desire to be complicit in the creation and abandonment of another artificial life.**

**What could the mysterious **_**Imam**_** want with Eve and Ben? Stay tuned and find out. **

**Pilot: Right then, I hope you guys have enjoyed the Chapter.**

**Leave a review and let us know what you guys think.**

**A TV Tropes page would be loved and appreciated.**

**And we will see ya when we see ya.**


End file.
